S.C. Supreme Court issues opinion on excited utterances

In State v. Davis, the trial court admitted a hearsay statement from witness Hill that the shotgun Davis had offered to sell to Hicks had been used to murder the victim. The Court of Appeals affirmed the admission of the statement, but the Supreme Court reversed. According to the Court, no evidence was elicited by the State that Hill was still under the stress or excitement of the shooting. Therefore, the State did not meet its burden of establishing a foundation for the excited utterance. The Court also held that the evidence in the record did not support the conclusion that Hill had witnessed the shooting. Hence, the hearsay statement should have been excluded.