R.I. R. Evid. 803

The

following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available

as a witness:

(1) Present Sense Impression. A statement describing or explaining an event or

condition made while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition or

immediately thereafter.

(2) Excited Utterance. A statement relating to a startling event or condition

made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or

condition.

(3) Then Existing Mental, Emotional, or Physical Condition. A statement of

the declarant's then existing state of mind, emotion, sensation, or physical condition

(such as intent, plan, motive, design, mental feeling, pain, and bodily health), but not

including a statement of memory or belief to prove the fact remembered or believed

unless it relates to the execution, revocation, identification, or terms of declarant's

will.

(4) Statements for Purposes of Medical Diagnosis or Treatment. Statements

made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment and describing medical history,

or past or present symptoms, pain, or sensations, or the inception or general character

of the cause or external source thereof insofar as reasonably pertinent to diagnosis

or treatment, but not including statements made to a physician consulted solely for

the purposes of preparing for litigation or obtaining testimony for trial.

(5) Recorded Recollection. A memorandum or record concerning a matter about

which a witness once had knowledge but now has insufficient recollection to enable

the witness to testify fully and accurately, shown to have been made or adopted by

the witness when the matter was fresh in the witness' memory and to reflect that

knowledge correctly. If admitted, the memorandum or record may be read into

evidence and received as an exhibit.

(6) Records of Regularly Conducted Activity. A memorandum, report, record,

or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions or diagnoses,

made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, another person with

knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it

was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report,

record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other

qualified witness, unless the source of information or the method or circumstances

of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. The term “business” as used in this

paragraph includes business, institution, association, profession, occupation, and

calling of every kind, whether or not conducted for profit.

(7) Absence of Entry in Records Kept in Accordance With the Provisions of

Paragraph (6). Evidence that a matter is not included in the memoranda, reports,

records, or data compilations, in any form, kept in accordance with the provisions of

paragraph (6), to prove the nonoccurrence or nonexistence of the matter, if the matter

was of a kind of which a memorandum, report, record, or data compilation was

regularly made and preserved, unless the sources of information or other

circumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness.

(8) Public Records and Reports. Records, reports, statements, or data

compilations, in any form, of public offices or agencies, setting forth (A) the

activities of the office or agency, or (B) matters observed pursuant to duty imposed

by law as to which matters there was a duty to report, excluding, however, in

criminal cases matters observed by police officers and other law enforcement

personnel, or (C) in civil actions and proceedings and against the state in criminal

cases, factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority

granted by law, unless the sources of information or other circumstances indicate

lack of trustworthiness.

(9) Records of Vital Statistics. Records or data compilations, in any form, of

births, fetal deaths, deaths, or marriages, if the report thereof was made to a public

office pursuant to requirements of law.

(10) Absence of Public Record or Entry. To prove the absence of a record,

report, statement, or data compilation, in any form, or the nonoccurrence or

nonexistence of a matter of which a record, report, statement, or data compilation,

in any form, was regularly made and preserved by a public office or agency,

evidence in the form of a certification in accordance with Rule 902, or testimony,

that diligent search failed to disclose the record, report, statement, or data

compilation, or entry.

(11) Records of Religious Organizations. Statements of births, marriages,

divorces, deaths, legitimacy, ancestry, relationship by blood or marriage, or other

similar facts of personal or family history, contained in a regularly kept record of a

religious organization.

(12) Marriage, Baptismal, and Similar Certificates. Statements of fact

contained in a certificate that the maker performed a marriage or other ceremony or

administered a sacrament, made by a clergyman, public official, or other person

authorized by the rules or practices of a religious organization or by law to perform

the act certified, and purporting to have been issued at the time of the act or within

a reasonable time thereafter.

(13) Family Records. Statements of fact concerning personal or family history

contained in family Bibles, genealogies, charts, engravings on rings, inscriptions on

family portraits, engravings on urns, crypts, or tombstones, or the like.

(14) Records of Documents Affecting an Interest in Property. The record of

a document purporting to establish or affect an interest in property, as proof of the

content of the original recorded document and its execution and delivery by each

person by whom it purports to have been executed, if the record is a record of a

public office and an applicable statute authorizes the recording of documents of that

kind in that office.

(15) Statements in Documents Affecting an Interest in Property. A statement

contained in a document purporting to establish or affect an interest in property if

the matter stated was relevant to the purpose of the document, unless dealings with

the property since the document was made have been inconsistent with the truth of

the statement or the purport of the document.

(16) Statements in Ancient Documents. Statements in a document in existence

twenty years or more the authenticity of which is established.

(17) Market Reports, Commercial Publications. Market quotations,

tabulations, lists, directories, or other published compilations, generally used and

relied upon by the public or by persons in particular occupations.

(18) Learned Treatises. To the extent called to the attention of an expert witness

upon cross-examination or relied upon by the witness in direct examination,

statements contained in published treatises, periodicals, or pamphlets on a subject of

history, medicine, or other science or art, established as a reliable authority by the

testimony or admission of the witness or by other expert testimony or by judicial

notice. If admitted, the statements may be read into evidence but may not be received

as exhibits.

(19) Reputation Concerning Personal or Family History. Reputation among

members of a person's family by blood, adoption, or marriage, or among a person's

associates, or in the community, concerning a person's birth, adoption, marriage,

divorce, death, legitimacy, relationship by blood, adoption, or marriage, ancestry, or

other similar fact of his or her personal or family history.

(20) Reputation Concerning Boundaries or General History. Reputation in a

community arising before the controversy, as to boundaries of or customs affecting

lands in the community, and reputation as to events of general history important to

the community or State or nation in which located.

(21) Reputation as to Character. Reputation of a person's character among his

associates or in the community.

(22) Judgment of Previous Conviction. Evidence of a final judgment, entered

after a trial or upon a plea of guilty or of nolo contendere which constitutes a

conviction by the terms of G.L.R.I. § 12-18-3, adjudging a person guilty of a crime

punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year, to prove any fact

essential to sustain the judgment, but not including, when offered by the state in a

criminal prosecution for purposes other than impeachment, judgments against

persons other than the accused. The pendency of an appeal may be shown but does

not affect admissibility.

(23) Judgment as to Personal, Family or General History or Boundaries.

Judgments as proof of matters of personal, family or general history, or boundaries,

essential to the judgment, if the same would be provable by evidence of reputation.

(24) Other Exceptions. A statement not specifically covered by any of the

foregoing exceptions but having equivalent circumstantial guarantees of

trustworthiness, if the court determines that (A) the statement is offered as evidence

of a material fact; (B) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is

offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable

efforts; and (C) the general purposes of these rules and the interests of justice will

best be served by admission of the statement into evidence. However, a statement

may not be admitted under this exception unless the proponent of it makes known to

the adverse party sufficiently in advance of the trial or hearing to provide the adverse

party with a fair opportunity to prepare to meet it, his or her intention to offer the

statement and the particulars of it, including the name and address of the declarant.