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Week 7: Further exceptions to the hearsay rule - Coggle Diagram

- - - - My son has been spnging therefore I leave everything to my daughter.
        This statement is evidence only of the testators frame of mind when considering his son as a beneficiary. It is not evidence that his son was 'sponging'.
- - - - In criminal cases, statements by an unavailable witness may be given provided that same condition is met, AND one of several conditions are met: Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) s 65.
        
        EG: if the prior statement was 'made in circumstances that make it highly probable that the representation is reliable s 65(2)
- - - - Rationale is that a statement made in the course of the action is not something said it is something done. It is an integral part of the conduct and therefore can be described by witnesses: Adelaide Chemical v Carlyle (1940) 64 CLR 514
        
        The first specific type of res gestae situation is where the words spoken at the time of the action accompany and explain the action underway.
        Consider R v Benz (1989) 168 CLR 110
        
        Benz and her mother were engaged in the disposal of the body of the mother's de facto, who had died of stab wounds
        
        The two lowered the body off a bridge into a river in the early AM
        
        A passerby noticed them and slowed to ask if they were ok
        
        D said it was alright, Mother is just a bit sick
        
        ADMISSIBLE as evidence of the relationship between the two.
- - - - Evidence of the telephone operator was admissible as evidence that the victim was in great fear immediately before the shooting.
- - - - Bull v The Queen (2000) 201 CLR 443
        
        Bolton v WA [2007] WA SCA 277
- - - - If a man says to his surgeon, 'I have a pain in the head'...that is evidence; but if he says, 'I have a wound'; and wants to add, 'I met John Thomas, who had a sword, and ran me through the body with it', that would be no evidence against John Thomas.
        R v Nicholas (1846) 175 ER 102
- - - - Woman found strangled in her bedroom
        
        No signs of struggle
        
        Painter/decorator arrested for murder
        
        Husband of victim states she had been discussing employing the painter to renovate the bathroom
        
        Admissible to indicate the reason why there may have been no struggle elsewhere in the house: R v Hendrie (1985) 37 SASR 581