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Article: Brecht v. Abrahamson: harmful error in habeas corpus law. (Criminal Law)
- Article from:
- Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
- Article date:
- January 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Northwestern University, School of Law. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I. INTRODUCTION: THE COURT'S NEW HARMLESS ERROR STANDARD FOR HABEAS CORPUS CASES
For the past two and one-half decades, the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts have applied the same rule for assessing the harmlessness of constitutional error in habeas corpus proceedings as they have applied on direct appeal of both state and federal convictions.(1) Under that rule, which applied to all constitutional errors except those deemed per se prejudicial or per se reversible,(2) the state could avoid reversal upon a finding of error only by proving that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.(3) The Supreme Court adopted this stringent standard in ...