Court Opinion

ID: 9531188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:08:29.809067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:21.868202
License: Public Domain

JON E WILCOX, J.
¶ 86. (concurring). I write *621separately because the majority refers to a debate that was settled three years ago. Some justices suggest that the test for harmless error set forth in Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 18 (1999), is an "alternative wording" of the harmless-error test in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967), majority op., ¶ 60 n.9, and would like to apply the test for harmless error as set forth in Chapman. Majority op., ¶¶ 60-61.
¶ 87. In State v. Harvey, 2002 WI 93, ¶ 47, 254 Wis. 2d 442, 647 N.W.2d 189, this court adopted the Neder formulation of the harmless error test for constitutional errors. In doing so we noted: "The Court's use of somewhat different language in restating the test can be viewed as a further clarification of what it takes to meet the test; that is, that in order to conclude that an error 'did not contribute to the verdict' within the meaning of Chapman, a court must be able to conclude 'beyond a reasonable doubt that a rational jury would have found the defendant guilty absent the error.'" Id., ¶ 48 n.14 (quoting Neder, 527 U.S. at 18). The result of Harvey was that "the harmless error dispute [was] finally put to rest in Wisconsin, at least in criminal cases." Id., ¶ 51 (Crooks, J., concurring).
¶ 88. In State v. Weed, 2003 WI 85, ¶¶ 28-29, 263 Wis. 2d 434, 666 N.W.2d 485, this court applied the Neder formulation of harmless error to a supposed Confrontation Clause violation. We noted that the Neder test was not a sufficiency of the evidence test and reaffirmed our explanation in Harvey that Neder refined the Chapman test for harmless error. Id. "In other words, if it is 'clear beyond a reasonable doubt that a rational jury would have convicted absent the error' then the error did not' "contribute to the verdict."'" Id., ¶ 29 (quoting Neder, 527 U.S. at 15, 18). Recently, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals indicated that the *622Neder formulation of harmless error is applicable to Confrontation Clause violations post-Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004). United States v. Gilbert, 391 F.3d 882, 884 (7th Cir. 2004).
¶ 89. Therefore, I would continue to apply the Neder formulation of harmless error to Confrontation Clause violations in the aftermath of Crawford. Because the majority reverts back to the Chapman formulation of harmless error without the refinements of Neder, and in doing so reopens a debate that was definitely settled by this court in Harvey and Weed, I respectfully concur.
¶ 90. I am authorized to state that Justices N. PATRICK CROOKS and DAVID T. PROSSER, JR. join this concurrence.