The New York Court of Appeals, in People v. Cummings, has recently provided guidance as to just how far the excited utterance hearsay exception can go. The decision also provides helpful analysis on the application of the law-of-the-case doctrine regarding pre-trial evidentiary rulings.

But the actual question presented to the Cummings court was whether it was reasonably inferable from the circumstances that the anonymous speaker, heard in the background of the 911 call, personally observed a shooting. The court’s inquiry was limited to whether there was record support for the trial court’s admissibility ruling. The Court of Appeals found there was none.