4
Per Curiam
Ninth Circuit panel affirmed. Roy v. Gomez, 55 F. 3d 1483 (1995).
The Ninth Circuit later heard the case en banc and reversed the District Court. It held that the instructional error was not harmless. 81 F. 3d 863 (1996). In doing so, the majority applied a special "harmless error" standard, which it believed combined aspects of our decisions in Carella v. California, 491 U. S. 263 (1989) (per curiam), and O'Neal v. McAninch, 513 U. S. 432 (1995). The Ninth Circuit described the standard as follows:
"[T]he omission is harmless only if review of the facts found by the jury establishes that the jury necessarily found the omitted element." 81 F. 3d, at 867 (emphasis in original).
As we understand that statement in context, it meant:
"[T]he omission [of the 'intent' part of the instruction] is harmless only if review of the facts found by the jury [namely, assistance and knowledge] establishes that the jury necessarily found the omitted element [namely, 'intent']." Ibid.
The State of California, seeking certiorari, argues that this definition of "harmless error" is far too strict and that this Court's decisions require application of a significantly less strict "harmless error" standard in cases on collateral review. See Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U. S. 619 (1993); O'Neal, supra.
We believe that the State, and the dissenting judges in the Ninth Circuit, are correct about the proper standard. The Ninth Circuit majority drew its special standard primarily from a concurring opinion in Carella, supra, a case that dealt with legal presumptions. The concurrence in that case set out the views of several Justices about the proper way to determine whether an error in respect to the use of a presumption was "harmless." Subsequent to Carella, however, this Court held that a federal court reviewing a state-court
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007