Opinion ID: 2566681
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Principles of constitutional harmless error

Text: {8} Except in cases involving structural errors, which are subject to per se reversal, we are bound to apply the harmless-error analysis outlined in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), to federal constitutional errors. See Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 7-8, 15-16, 119 S.Ct. 1827, 144 L.Ed.2d 35 (1999). In order to conclude a non-structural constitutional error does not require reversal, we must conclude the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Chapman, 386 U.S. at 24, 87 S.Ct. 824. Underlying the Chapman analysis is the acknowledgment that there may be some constitutional errors which in the setting of a particular case are so unimportant and insignificant that they may, consistent with the Federal Constitution, be deemed harmless, not requiring the automatic reversal of the conviction. Id. at 22, 87 S.Ct. 824. Thus, the United States Supreme Court in Chapman fashioned a rule that would balance the Court's inherent interest in vindicating federal constitutional guarantees against the utility of blocking the traditional practice of automatically setting aside convictions for small errors or defects that have little, if any, likelihood of having changed the result of the trial. Id. {9} The Court has articulated the constitutional harmless-error standard variously since Chapman was decided, but the central focus of the Chapman inquiry has always been whether there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction. Id. at 23, 87 S.Ct. 824 (quotation marks and quoted authority omitted). Stated differently, in the context of an essential element that was not presented to the jury, the reviewing court must be able to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury verdict would have been the same absent the error[.] Neder, 527 U.S. at 19, 119 S.Ct. 1827; see Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U.S. 275, 279, 113 S.Ct. 2078, 124 L.Ed.2d 182 (1993) (The inquiry ... is not whether, in a trial that occurred without the error, a guilty verdict would surely have been rendered, but whether the guilty verdict actually rendered in this trial was surely unattributable to the error.). Once the constitutional error has been established, the burden is on the State to demonstrate the error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 630, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993). {10} In conducting this inquiry, the reviewing court must ever bear in mind that criminal defendants have a constitutional right to have a jury, not appellate court judges on review, decide guilt or innocence. See Sullivan, 508 U.S. at 279, 113 S.Ct. 2078 ([T]o hypothesize a guilty verdict that was never in fact renderedno matter how inescapable the findings to support that verdict might bewould violate the jury-trial guarantee.); cf. Rose v. Clark, 478 U.S. 570, 578, 106 S.Ct. 3101, 92 L.Ed.2d 460 (1986) (noting that harmless-error review does not apply where the judge directs a verdict, because the wrong entity judged the defendant guilty). Therefore, it is imperative that a reviewing court be guided not by its own assessment of the guilt or innocence of the defendanta matter which is irrelevant to the question whether the constitutional error might have contributed to the jury's verdictbut rather by an objective reconstruction of the record of evidence the jury either heard or should have heard absent the error and a careful examination of the error's possible impact on that evidence. See Yates v. Evatt, 500 U.S. 391, 404-05, 111 S.Ct. 1884, 114 L.Ed.2d 432 (1991) (examining the probative force of the constitutional error against the probative force of the evidence considered by the jury), overruled on other grounds by Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 73 n. 4, 112 S.Ct. 475, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991). If, at the end of that examination, we conclude there is a reasonable possibility the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction, we must reverse. {11} In the specific context of a Confrontation Clause violation, as we are faced with in this case, the Supreme Court in Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 684, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986), stated that the reviewing court must examine various factors in conducting its harmless-error inquiry: These factors include the importance of the witness' testimony in the prosecution's case, whether the testimony was cumulative, the presence or absence of evidence corroborating or contradicting the testimony of the witness on material points, the extent of cross-examination otherwise permitted, and, of course, the overall strength of the prosecution's case. We emphasize that constitutional error must not be deemed harmless solely based on overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt; the overall strength of the prosecution's case is but one factor in our harmless-error analysis. The central focus of the inquiry, for which the Van Arsdall factors are but a guide, is whether there is a reasonable possibility the erroneous evidence might have affected the jury's verdict.