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Harmlessness and Habeas

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

With its grant of certiorari in the case of Chrones v. Pulido, No. 07-544, the U.S. Supreme Court ventures once more into the questions of habeas corpus, harmless error, and deference to the state court's decision on direct appeal. The Court addressed related issues last June in Fry v. Pliler, No. 06-5247. The new case deals with the situation where a jury is given more than one path to a conviction, of which one is right and the other wrong. The Supreme Court addressed that situation in Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359 (1931). Much water has passed under the harmless-error bridge since Stromberg. In more recent cases, the Court has divided errors into "structural" and "trial." Structural errors are reversible without any inquiry as to whether the error was prejudicial in the individual case...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on February 25, 2008 (boomark / email).