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Text: We turn, then, to the question whether, on the whole record before us, the error identified by the Court of Appeals was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Although we are not required to review records to evaluate a harmless-error claim, and do so sparingly, we plainly have the authority to do so.[8] See Harrington, supra, where the Court granted certiorari to consider the issue whether a Bruton error was harmless and to that end undertook its "own reading of the record," 395 U.S., at 254. See also Chapman, 386 U. S., at 24-26; Milton v. Wainwright, supra, at 377; Parker v. Randolph, 442 U.S. 62, 80-81 (1979) (opinion of BLACKMUN, J.). Cf. Brown, supra, at 231. In making this assessment, we are aided by the Court of Appeals' own explicit statement that

"[d]espite the magnitude of the crimes committed and the clear evidence of guilt, an application of the doctrine of harmless error would impermissibly compromise the clear constitutional violation of the defendants' Fifth Amendment rights." 660 F.2d, at 303. (Emphasis added.)
The question a reviewing court must ask is this: absent the prosecutor's allusion to the failure of the defense to proffer evidence to rebut the testimony of the victims, is it clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury would have returned a verdict of guilty? Harrington, supra, at 254. A reviewing court must begin with the reality that the jurors sat in the same room day after day with the defendants and their lawyers; much testimony had been heard from the three women who described in detail the repeated wanton acts of the defendants during three hours in two States, thus negating any doubt as to identification. Immediately on their release the victims described the defendants to the police and promptly identified them in lineups. Neutral witnesses corroborated critical aspects of the victims' testimony. Randy Newcomb, a prosecution witness, testified that he witnessed the rape of one of the women shortly after the car in which he was riding was stopped; the garage owner where the second episode occurred observed two women with four men, one of whom answered to respondent Anderson's description. The automobile, which was central to the case, was a singular color and was registered to respondent Williams. Property of two of the victims was found in respondent Stewart's possession hours after the crimes; Williams' fingerprints were found on the car in which the victims had been riding. In short, a more compelling case of guilt is difficult to imagine.

Paradoxically, respondents relied for their defense on a claim of mistaken identity, yet they tendered no evidence placing any of them at other places at the relevant times. The evidence presented by them was testimony showing (a) that some of respondents' hairstyles immediately before and after the incident differed from the victims' descriptions of their assailants' appearances, (b) that two of the victims had been unable to pick one of the respondents, Anderson, out of a lineup, (c) that it was so dark at the time of the attacks and during the car trips, that Newcomb did not have an unobstructed view of the rape he described, and (d) that Stewart's mother testified that the girls she saw with her son did not look "scared." Finally, the defense intimated that the victims crossed state lines voluntarily by raising the possibility that the women entered respondents' car willingly _x0097_ a point hardly consistent with the idea that the respondents did not commit the crimes charged. That these defense efforts presented patently and totally inconsistent theories could hardly have escaped the attention of the jurors.

In the face of this overwhelming evidence of guilt and the inconsistency of the scanty evidence tendered by the defendants, it is little wonder that the Court of Appeals referred to "the crimes committed" and acknowledged the "clear evidence of guilt." Of course, none of these hard realities would ever constitute justification for prosecutorial misconduct, but here, accepting the utterance of the prosecutor as improper, criticism of him could well be directed more accurately at his competence and judgment in jeopardizing an unanswered _x0097_ and unanswerable _x0097_ case. On the whole record, we are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the error relied upon was harmless.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals, ordering a new trial based on the prosecutor's argument, is reversed. Because other contentions were advanced by respondents that were not treated in the court's opinion, we remand to allow the Court of Appeals to consider such other claims if respondents elect to press them.

Reversed and remanded.