Opinion ID: 107487
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: admission of co-defendant's statements.

Text: Petitioner contends that he was denied due process of law by the admission during the guilt stage of the trial of his accomplice's pretrial statements to the police which referred to petitioner 159 times in the course of reciting petitioner's role in the robbery and murder. The statements were inadmissible hearsay as to petitioner, and were held on King's aspect of this appeal to be improperly obtained from him and therefore to be inadmissible against him under California law. 63 Cal. 2d, at 699-701, 408 P. 2d, at 370-371. Petitioner would have us reconsider Delli Paoli v. United States, 352 U. S. 232 (where the Court held that appropriate instructions to the jury would suffice to prevent prejudice to a defendant from the references to him in a co-defendant's statement), at least as applied to a case, as here, where the co-defendant gained a reversal because of the improper admission of the statements. We have no occasion to pass upon this contention. The California Supreme Court has rejected the Delli Paoli rationale, and relying at least in part on the reasoning of the Delli Paoli dissent, regards cautionary instructions as inadequate to cure prejudice. People v. Aranda, 63 Cal. 2d 518, 407 P. 2d 265. The California court applied Aranda in this case but held that any error as to Gilbert in the admission of King's statements was harmless. The harmless-error standard applied was that there is no reasonable possibility that the error in admitting King's statements and testimony might have contributed to Gilbert's conviction, a standard derived by the court from our decision in Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U. S. 85. [1] Fahy was the basis of our holding in Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18, and the standard applied by the California court satisfies the standard as defined in Chapman. It may be that the California Supreme Court will review the application of its harmless-error standard to King's statements if on the remand the State presses harmless error also in the introduction of the in-court and lineup identifications. However, this at best implies an ultimate application of Aranda and only confirms that petitioner's argument for reconsideration of Delli Paoli need not be considered at this time.