Opinion ID: 1902143
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: First Amendment Violation Harmless Error Review

Text: Dawson argues that the violation of his First Amendment rights, during his capital sentencing hearing, is not susceptible to a harmless error review. Dawson finds support for that proposition in Justice Blackmun's concurring opinion which states: Because of the potential chilling effect that consideration of First Amendment activity at sentencing might have, there is a substantial argument that harmless-error analysis is not appropriate for the type of error before us today. [2] Id. at 1100 (Blackmun, J., concurring). However, this Court has concluded that the majority would not have opined that [t]he question of whether the wrongful admission of the Aryan Brotherhood evidence at sentencing was harmless error is ... open for consideration by the Supreme Court of Delaware on remand, if First Amendment errors were not subject to a harmless error analysis. Dawson v. Delaware, 112 S.Ct. at 1099. See also Pope v. Illinois, 481 U.S. 497, 107 S.Ct. 1918, 95 L.Ed.2d 439 (1987). Nevertheless, we are cognizant that, when the United States Supreme Court remanded the capital penalty hearing phase of Dawson's trial to this Court, it cited Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. 738, 110 S.Ct. 1441, 108 L.Ed.2d 725 (1990). In Clemons, the United States Supreme Court stated: Nothing in this opinion is intended to convey the impression that state appellate courts are required to or necessarily should engage in reweighing or harmless error analysis when errors have occurred in a capital sentencing proceeding. Our holding is only that such procedures are constitutionally permissible. In some situations, a state appellate court may conclude that peculiarities in a case make appellate reweighing or harmless error analysis extremely speculative or impossible. We have previously noted that appellate courts may face certain difficulties in determining sentencing questions in the first instance. Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U.S. at 754, 110 S.Ct. at 1451.