Court Opinion

ID: 9535162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:46:08.059432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:10.884647
License: Public Domain

BARHAM, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent, finding merit in Bills of Exception Nos. 24, 25, 26, 66, 67, 68, and 69. I stated in dissent in State v. Hopper, 253 La. 439, 218 So.2d 551 (1969), that the harmless error rule should not apply to the admission of the confession of a codefendant. I must dissent further in the case at hand because it presents another and more-complicating problem involving this same general principle of law. I stated in Hopper, supra, and I now find in the present case, that this court is applying the incorrect harmless error doctrine. The majority here and in Hopper cited Code of Criminal Procedure Article 921, which gives our Louisiana harmless error rule. Under United States Supreme Court decisions that rule is inapplicable to violations of federal constitutional rights, and as I will *1141show, the majority has failed (was even unable) to follow and apply the correct— that is, the federal — harmless error rule.
Harrington v. California, 395 U.S. 250, 89 S.Ct. 1726, 23 L.Ed.2d 284, which was decided after our Hopper case, reaffirmed Eruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476, in holding that the confession of a defendant is inadmissible in evidence when he is jointly tried with another, but it further held that the admission of such illegal or tainted evidence may constitute harmless error in particular cases. Harrington also reaffirmed the rule set forth in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L. Ed.2d 705, 24 A.L.R.3d 1065, in which the Supreme Court refused to allow a state to apply its harmless error standard and said that the admission of evidence which violates a federal constitutional right can be ruled harmless error only under the federal standard for harmless error, and the federal standard was there defined.
The federal harmless error doctrine, its evolution, and its change may be set forth by quoting pertinent statements from several United States Supreme Court decisions.
“* * * While this Court does not sit as in nisi prius to appraise contradictory factual questions, it will, where necessary to the determination of constitutional rights, make an independent examination of the facts, the findings, and the record so that it can determine for itself whether in the decision as to reasonableness the fundamental — i.e., constitutional — criteria established by this Court have been respected. * * *” Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726, 738. (All emphasis supplied.)
“* * * The question is whether there is a reasonable possibility that the evidence complained of might have contributed to the conviction. To decide this question, it is necessary to review the facts of the case and the evidence adduced at trial.” Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171, 173.
The dissent in Fahy interprets the majority holding: “* * * In any event, the standard applied here required a determination that exclusion of the unconstitutional evidence could not have changed the outcome of the trial. * * *” 84 S.Ct. 234, 11 L.Ed.2d 178.
“* * * We, therefore, do no more than adhere to the meaning of our Fahy Case when we hold, as we now do, that before a federal constitutional error can be held harmless, the court must be able to declare that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. * * *” Chapman v. California, supra, 87 S.Ct. at p. 828, 17 L.Ed. 2d at p. 710.
“We do not depart from Chapman; nor do we dilute it by inference. We reaffirm it. * * * The case against Harrington was not woven from circumstantial evi*1143dence. It is so overwhelming that unless we say that no violation of Bruton can constitute harmless error, we must leave the state conviction undisturbed.” Harrington v. California, supra, 89 S.Ct. at pp. 1728-1729, 23 L.Ed.2d at p. 288.
The dissent in Harrington states: “The Court holds that constitutional error in the trial of a criminal offense may be held harmless if there is ‘overwhelming’ untainted evidence to support the conviction. * * * The focus of appellate inquiry shoidd he on the character and quality of the tainted evidence as it relates to the untainted evidence and not just on the amount of untainted evidence.” 89 S.Ct. 1729, 23 L.Ed.2d 289.
From all the verbiage, seeming contradictions, and vacillations of these decisions there emerge at least four requirements which must be met by a court of review in its determination of whether a federal constitutional violation may be deemed harmless error in a particular case. First and most obvious, the reviewing court must make an independent examination of all of the facts, the findings, the testimony, the complete record of the trial court. Second, the reviewing court, excluding from its mind the tainted or illegally admitted evidence, must determine from its examination of the complete record whether the untainted —that is, admissible — evidence overwhelmingly supports a finding of the guilt of the accused. Third, the reviewing court must come to a conclusion that the constitutional error was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt”, had no effect upon the untainted evidence, no effect, cumulative or otherwise, upon the jury’s determination of guilt, and in no way contributed to the conviction. And finally, the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that such a violation is harmless error rests upon the party who benefited from the constitutional error — the State of Louisiana here.
It is apparent at first glance that there is a great difference in this federal doctrine and the Louisiana harmless error rule. The state harmless error rule rejected in Chapman, supra, was California Constitution, Article 6, Section 4i^, requiring that the error complained of has not “resulted in a miscarriage of justice”, which is identical to part of the language of our Code of Criminal Procedure Article 921 (former R.S. 15:557). Although we had and still have additional language in our statutory rule for harmless error, including the phrase “after an examination of the entire record”, under this statute this court has refused to review all the facts, the testimony, and the complete record to determine guilt or innocence or the effect of the tainted evidence or to pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence. Indeed, because of the limitation of our review to perfected bills of exception and patent errors we seldom have before us the com*1145píete record of the trial proceedings and therefore cannot review the evidence in every case or even in most cases.
One reason for my dissent and call for reversal of convictions in the Hopper case, as well as the primary basis for my dissent here, is that we are bound by our state constitutional limitation of review to questions of law in criminal cases and are therefore powerless to apply the federal harmless error standard which requires, among other things, a review of all the evidence for a determination of whether the admissible evidence “overwhelmingly” or “beyond a reasonable doubt” supports the verdict of guilty. The majority states this principle very succinctly under its discussion of Bill of Exception No. 106 and uses it as a basis for refusal of “a full and complete transcript”, saying: “In Louisiana, an appeal in a criminal case is only on questions of law. The Supreme Court is without jurisdiction to review the facts. Art. VII, Sect. 10, La.Const. Here the evidence attached to the Bills of Exceptions provides a full base for appellate review. No verbatim transcript is required, nor would this court review it if it had been transmitted. * * *” (Emphasis supplied.)
The United States Supreme Court has required only that if we look for harmless error, we must meet the minimal requirements of the federal rule; but we may be more strict in determining whether the error is harmless, or we may even reject the concept of harmless error and simply - reverse. We must comply with Bruton and the United States Constitution, but we are also constrained to apply our own constitutional provision limiting our review to questions of law. We must choose one of two courses. We may demand that no-confessions of codefendants be used in joint state prosecutions and reverse upon such an admission because it denies the federal as well as the state constitutional right of cross-examination and ■ confrontation. The alternative is to judicially create machinery whereby our court may review the full record for a determination of whether the error is harmless under the federal standard; and the majority apparently agrees with me that such a factual determination by this court of the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the guilt of the accused contravenes the Louisiana Constitution.
The majority opinion is contrary to the holding in Harrington v. California, supra, for it has held that mere similarity in confessions of codefendants, in and of itself, makes their admission in every case harmless error.1 The majority has not applied *1147the federal harmless error doctrine (and could not apply it because the complete record is not before us), and yet it does not reverse. Under Bill of Exception No. 106 these very defendants have complained that they were denied the privilege of a complete transcript of testimony, and the majority not only has declared that they are not entitled to this complete record but has stated that this court would refuse to review such a record if it were before us. The majority’s position of finding harmless error in this case without a complete record and at the same time refusing to require or review a complete record is untenable and contrary to the United States Supreme Court jurisprudence upon which it relies.2
Under the record before us there is no ■evidence independent of the several confessions of the defendants to sustain these verdicts, and we must reverse.
To sum up, we cannot apply the Louisiana harmless error rule without disregarding positive United States Supreme Court decisions; and we cannot follow the federal harmless error rule without contravening our own Louisiana Constitution. I would resolve this dilemma by following our state constitutional requirement in re-’ view of criminal cases, and therefore I would adhere to my dissenting opinion in State v. Hopper, supra, that when a codefendant’s confession is to be used, there must be a severance, and that if a codefendant’s confession is used in a joint trial, we must reverse. Regardless of my preference, this court will eventually have to make some determination other than a finding that mere similarity of codefendants’ confessions makes their introduction into evidence in a joint trial harmless error.
*1149If the majority opinion stands, our trial courts and the State may well be led to compound error so as to affect many other defendants, and federal intervention will follow with greater disadvantage to our system of criminal justice.
I respectfully dissent.
FOURNET, C. J., dissents from refusal of a rehearing to both applications.
BARHAM, J., dissents from a refusal to grant rehearing with respect to defendants’ application.

. The majority holding is:
“Although there is a variation in the details of the four confessions, all coincide on the salient point: acting in concert, the four defendants raped the victim in succession. None of the confes*1147sions absolves either the confessor or any of his co-defendants.
“The harmless error rule applies to the use of such confessions at a joint trial. Art. 921, C.Cr.P.; Harrington v. California, 395 U.S. 250, 89 S.Ct. 1726, 23 L.Ed.2d 284 (1969); State v. Hopper, 253 La. 439, 218 So.2d 551 (1969).
“We find no substantial conflict in the confessions. Hence, assuming error in the ruling of the trial judge admitting the confessions at the joint trial, it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”

. The voluminous record before us contains very little of the testimony given before the jury in regard to the guilt of the defendants. Our record consists in the main of testimony presented out of the presence of the jury on motions to suppress and other matters triable before the judge alone. There is no evidence in the record before us to sustain the guilt of the defendants under the perfected bills of exception except the confession of each of them. The majority has found harmless error merely upon the review of these confessions. Not only is there a lack of “overwhelming” evidence, but there is no other evidence of guilt of any of the defendants in the record before us. This is not to say that in testimony before the jury such evidence was not elicited and presented; it simply is not before us for review. It should be noted that for us to reverse on a sparse record in a case such as this one and to find harmless error and affirm in another case where the complete record is before us under perfected bills of exception might well be a denial of equal protection.