Opinion ID: 2636172
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Availability of harmless-error review

Text: Our cases diverge in the way they determine whether reversal is required when an instructional error allows a jury to return a verdict based on a legally invalid theory but the jury is also presented with one or more valid alternative theories. In Bolden, we viewed an instructional error on an alternative theory as Stromberg error and adopted an absolute certainty approach that is unique to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. But two years later, in Nay, we neglected to take the same approach. Although the scenarios in Nay and Bolden a general verdict obscuring whether the jury determined guilt on a legally valid or a legally invalid alternative theory of liabilitywere indistinguishable as a practical matter, in Nay the idea of a Stromberg error was not raised or addressed, and we viewed the error purely as an instructional error. As a result, we applied Chapman harmless-error review in that case. We now retreat from the absolute certainty approach advanced in Bolden and reaffirm the harmless-error approach taken in Nay.