HEARSAY STATEMENT BY BYSTANDER WHO OBSERVED DEFENDANT PROPERLY ADMITTED AS A PRESENT SENSE IMPRESSION.

The Court of Appeals determined a (hearsay) spontaneous statement made by a bystander to a police officer about defendant’s attempt to get into the back of a FedEx truck was properly admitted as a present sense impression:

We hold that the statement was properly admitted as a present sense impression. That exception to the hearsay rule allows the admission of “spontaneous descriptions of events made substantially contemporaneously with the observations . . . if the descriptions are sufficiently corroborated by other evidence” … . Here, the woman’s statement was made to the officer immediately after the event she described and before she had an opportunity for studied reflection. The officer’s own observations sufficiently corroborated her description to allow its admission at trial … . People v Jones, 2016 NY Slip Op 07820, CtApp 11-21-16

CRIMINAL LAW (HEARSAY STATEMENT BY BYSTANDER WHO OBSERVED DEFENDANT PROPERLY ADMITTED AS A PRESENT SENSE IMPRESSION)/EVIDENCE (CRIMINAL LAW, HEARSAY STATEMENT BY BYSTANDER WHO OBSERVED DEFENDANT PROPERLY ADMITTED AS A PRESENT SENSE IMPRESSION)/HEARSAY (HEARSAY STATEMENT BY BYSTANDER WHO OBSERVED DEFENDANT PROPERLY ADMITTED AS A PRESENT SENSE IMPRESSION)/PRESENT SENSE IMPRESSION (HEARSAY STATEMENT BY BYSTANDER WHO OBSERVED DEFENDANT PROPERLY ADMITTED AS A PRESENT SENSE IMPRESSION)