Court Opinion

ID: 9467312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:45:17.243651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:17.202280
License: Public Domain

DAVIS, Judge,
concurring:
In this habeas corpus consideration of a state conviction, even though and because tried as far back as 1971, I cannot bring myself to accept as constitutional the challenged portions of the charge without taking some account of the strength of the evidence against appellant. In a federal habeas corpus case of this vintage (coming from a state court), this is not, for me, an application of the strict doctrine of harmless error (as applied by the District Court), but rather one of the several components showing the existence (or not) of the ultimate constitutional requirement that the defendant be tried and convicted under the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I therefore concur in the court’s opinion but add that, in agreeing with the court that there was no violation of due process, I have also considered the strong evidence against appellant-as indicated, for one thing, by the District Court’s determination that even if there were constitutional errors in the charge they were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The solidity of the evidence helps to convince me, regardless of the application of “harmless error,” that the imperfections in the charge did not prevent Bumpus from having received a fair trial or his constitutional measure of due process,