The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment provides every criminal defendant with a procedural right to confront witnesses against him through cross-examination. Identifying which individuals are witnesses requires a court to determine whether an individual has made a testimonial statement. In United States v. Brito, the First Circuit Court of Appeals examined the effect that an excited utterance could have on identifying a testimonial statement. The court held that the excited utterance within an anonymous 911 call was nontestimonial because the caller’s excited state prevented her from reasonably foreseeing the government using her statement in a future prosecution. . . .
Constitutional Law—Allowing Excited Utterances to Affect Characterizing Accusatory Statements as Testimonial Statements Contradicts Confrontation Clause Jurisprudence—United States v. Brito, 427 F.3d 53 (1st Cir. 2005)
Mar 21, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 2, Print Edition, Volume 40