626
Opinion of the Court
Appeals set the conviction aside on the ground that the State's references to petitioner's post-Miranda silence, see n. 2, supra, violated due process under Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U. S. 610 (1976), and that this error was sufficiently "prejudicial" to require reversal. State v. Brecht, 138 Wis. 2d 158, 168-169, 405 N. W. 2d 718, 723 (1987). The Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated the conviction. Although it agreed that the State's use of petitioner's post-Miranda silence was impermissible, the court determined that this error " 'was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.' " State v. Brecht, 143 Wis. 2d 297, 317, 421 N. W. 2d 96, 104 (1988) (quoting Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18, 24 (1967)). In finding the Doyle violation harmless, the court noted that the State's "improper references to Brecht's silence were infrequent," in that they "comprised less than two pages of a 900 page transcript, or a few minutes in a four day trial in which twenty-five witnesses testified," and that the State's evidence of guilt was compelling. 143 Wis. 2d, at 317, 421 N. W. 2d, at 104.
Petitioner then sought a writ of habeas corpus under 28
U. S. C. § 2254, reasserting his Doyle claim. The District Court agreed that the State's use of petitioner's post-Miranda silence violated Doyle, but disagreed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court that this error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, and set aside the conviction. 759 F. Supp. 500 (WD Wis. 1991). The District Court based its harmless-error determination on its view that the State's evidence of guilt was not "overwhelming," and that the State's references to petitioner's post-Miranda silence, though "not extensive," were "crucial" because petitioner's defense turned on his credibility. Id., at 508. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed. It, too, concluded that the State's references to petitioner's post-Miranda silence violated Doyle, but it disagreed with both the standard that the District Court had applied in conducting its harmless-error
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