Court Opinion

ID: 9473516
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:31:51.847148+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:34.481391
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I join in Section One of the majority opinion concluding that there was a Sandstrom violation, but that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. With respect to Section Two, I concur in the result but I cannot join the opinion of the majority for the reasons stated in my special concurrence in Brooks v. Kemp, 762 F.2d 1383 (11th Cir.1985) (en banc). In my view, the majority’s use of the Strickland v. Washington prejudice standard to determine whether an argument is or is not fundamentally unfair is in conflict with existing Supreme Court precedent and the constitutional considerations underlying that precedent. Nevertheless, any error in the sentencing phase of Richard Tucker’s trial was harmless pursuant to the test enunciated by the Supreme Court in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).