U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to Review Ruling on Harmless Error in Jury Instructions
Posted Feb 25, 2008, 11:36 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether an erroneous jury instruction about a theory of guilt requires a federal court to reverse a murder conviction, SCOTUSblog reports.
The defendant in Chrones v. Pulido claimed the jury instruction allowed a jury to convict him as an accomplice in the robbery and killing of a convenience store clerk, even if he aided in the robbery only after the killing. The state of California maintained the error was harmless because the jury had specifically found the defendant aided the robbery during the murder.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the erroneous instruction was structural error requiring reversal. The cert petition (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) says four other circuits have found that an erroneous instruction on an element of a crime is not structural and may be found to be harmless.
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