452
Thomas, J., dissenting
not make up its mind about whether a jury would have entertained any reasonable doubt about the defendant's guilt. Though the majority seems to suggest otherwise, it certainly will not be true that in half of such cases, the State will have unjustly imprisoned an innocent person.
C
Citing Kotteakos, Chapman, and other cases, the Court concludes that its rule will be easier to administer because it is consistent with the way courts have treated grave doubts about harm. Ante, at 443. As indicated above, Palmer and the majority view in the Courts of Appeals provide an equally attractive rule that is consistent with longstanding practice. As for the Court's assertion that its rule eliminates "the need for judges to read lengthy records to determine prejudice in every habeas case," ante, at 443, I thought it settled that "it is the duty of a reviewing court to consider the trial record as a whole" when conducting a harmless-error analysis, United States v. Hasting, 461 U. S. 499, 509 (1983). Surely a judge cannot, in the midst of reading a record, declare himself to be in grave doubt, stop reviewing, and issue the writ. Because further review may always disturb the judge's current view of the error, the judge cannot stop until he finishes reviewing the relevant portions of the record. Indeed, given that further review always has the potential to resolve any grave doubt, one is tempted to require a judge to continue to read and reread the relevant portions of the record until his grave doubts dissipate.
III
Fortunately, the rule announced today will affect only a minuscule fraction of cases. Even when there is a close question about whether an error was harmful, the conscientious judge ordinarily should make a ruling as to harm. The Court's rule is not a means for judges to escape difficult decisions; it applies only in that "special circumstance" in which
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