— Also termed res gesta. [Cases: Criminal Law 363–368; Evidence 118–128. C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 454, 831, 867–876; Evidence §§ 342–363.]
“The Latin expression ‘res gestae’ or ‘res gesta,’ literally ‘things done’ or ‘thing transacted,’ has long served as a catchword …. [T]he phrase has frequently served both to let in utterances which in strictness were not admissible and to exclude utterances which might well have been admitted. And frequently also its indefiniteness has served as a basis for rulings where it was easier for the judge to invoke this imposing catchword than to think through the real question involved. The phrase is antiquated. By modern judges it is being gradually discarded. It is superfluous, and serves only to obscure the logic of the rules. It should be left to oblivion.” John H. Wigmore, A Students’ Textbook of the Law of Evidence 279 (1935).
“The res gestae embraces not only the actual facts of the transaction and the circumstances surrounding it, but the matters immediately antecedent to and having a direct causal connection with it, as well as acts immediately following it and so closely connected with it as to form in reality a part of the occurrence.” State v. Fouquette, 221 P.2d 404, 416–17 (Nev. 1950).
