Hugo Black

“ Well, I think without saying a great deal more about it that each one of you can certainly infer as to what it very readily could mean, especially if one has in fact committed a robbery and kidnapped someone from the premises and that individual has ended up dead, shot three times in the head. And further, ladies and gentlemen, the only other thing I can say about it is this, who can really tell you and who could have told you from evidence, from the witness stand, what that letter meant? Well, the only one is Ruth Elizabeth Chapman, ladies and gentlemen. ”

“ An error in admitting plainly relevant evidence which possibly influenced the jury adversely to a litigant cannot, under Fahy, be conceived of as harmless. Certainly error, constitutional error, in illegally admitting highly prejudicial evidence or comments, casts on someone other than the person prejudiced by it a burden to show that it was harmless. It is for that reason that the original common-law harmless-error rule put the burden on the beneficiary of the error either to prove that there was no injury or to suffer a reversal of his erroneously obtained judgment. ”

“ Now, you've heard some self-serving declarations that are not admitted into evidence because they come through someone else who in some fashion gets testimony before you, but no cross-examination of the original party who is giving that kind of testimony, and you can't consider it.
'Thank you, Your Honor. Counsel has interjected himself into this, and he'll have every opportunity to make his own comments, and I'm sure he'll most adequately express himself when the times comes. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, that the only evidence that you have is that you have two box tops. ”

“ In this Court petitioners contend that both these questions are federal ones to be decided under federal law; that under federal law we should hold that denial of a federal constitutional right, no matter how unimportant, should automatically result in reversal of a conviction, without regard to whether the error is considered harmless; and that, if wrong in this, the various comments on petitioners' silence cannot, applying a federal standard, be considered harmless here. ”

“ You're not going to sit up and trump up excuses and make out a story which you know to be a lie about specific dates and times. And, ladies and gentlemen, there is no legal evidence before you that it is anything to the contrary, because the only one now that can come up and tell you has not seen fit to do so. ”

“ What harmless-error rules all aim at is a rule that will save the good in harmless-error practices while avoiding the bad, so far as possible.
The federal rule emphasizes 'substantial rights' as do most others. The California constitutional rule emphasizes 'a miscarriage of justice,' [6] but the California courts have neutralized this to some extent by emphasis, and perhaps overemphasis, upon the court's view of 'overwhelming evidence.' [7] We prefer the approach of this Court in deciding what was harmless error in our recent case of Fahy v. ”

“ Teale has never taken the stand in this case and testified for you. These things are things only within his knowledge, ladies and gentlemen. If there is any fact in this case of any relevancy of any importance it is within the knowledge of a defendant, and they chose not to take the stand and tell you about it, where incidentally they are under oath and can be cross-examined. You may draw an adverse inference from the fact that they do not take it. I think the inference is very clear, too, why they had this weapon here and why he never why it was fully loaded. ”

“ Ruth Elizabeth Chapman on the stand? No. Dr. Sheuerman said that she said it. Dr. Winkler said that she said. Mr. Johnson said that she said. Well, it's an interesting thing that the only witnesses who weren't here, or weren't on the stand to be cross-examined, the only witnesses who are alive today to the perpetration of these offenses, are these two defendants. That's all. They don't have to take the stand. ”

“ Such a holding, as petitioners correctly point out, would require an automatic reversal of their convictions and make further discussion unnecessary. We decline to adopt any such rule. All 50 States have harmless-error statutes or rules, and the United States long ago through its Congress established for its courts the rule that judgments shall not be reversed for 'errors or defects which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.' 28 U.S.C. § 2111. ”

“ None of these rules on its face distinguishes between federal constitutional errors and errors of state law or federal statutes and rules. All of these rules, state or federal, serve a very useful purpose insofar as they block setting aside convictions for small errors or defects that have little, if any, likelihood of having changed the result of the trial. ”

“ The evidence showed here that she bought two guns for Teale. What evidence? No witness on the stand got up there and said specifically under oath, and the only one that could do it would be Elizabeth Chapman herself. This is hearsay, what she told somebody else for the sole purpose of determining what her state of mind was at the time. It's not evidence. There's some evidence from her own lips through Dennis Mack as to the reason she bought the gun, which is different than what she said otherwise. Mr. Johnson said the evidence shows there was an argument in Fresno. ”

“ But, I think you have seen a demonstration here, and I'm not saying it in rancor, not anything of it at all, because this is a demonstration where actually Ruth Elizabeth Chapman is speaking through Mr. Johnson. A 'mouthpiece.'
'Maybe there is another reasonable one, other than the fact that it was Adcock's blood, because all three who were in the car had type A. Maybe there is, but you haven't heard it. You haven't heard any reasonable explanation of that. So, you can draw an adverse inference that it was Billy Dean Adcock's blood. ”

“ The defendants haven't indicated it, except through Teale in one-Mr. Vowell's testimony, as to what Mr. Teale said, but that is not admissible against, and you shouldn't consider it against, Ruth Elizabeth Chapman, but maybe the circumstances of who pulled the trigger might have been a factor that might have been important to you. Only two people know. They didn't tell you. That is the way they want to proceed. ”

“ Teale's possession immediately prior to the killing, the amount of intoxicating liquors consumed by defendants at the Spot Club and other taverns, the circumstances of the shooting in the automobile and the removal of the victim's body therefrom, who fired the fatal shots, why defendants used a false registration at a motel shortly after the killing, the meaning of a letter written by Mrs. ”