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State v. Van Kirk9/6/2001
r Chapman was the "overwhelming weight of the evidence" test. We expressed our belief that confining our review to one component of the case " n artificial isolation," would result in a lopsided view of the case on appeal. McKenzie, 186 Mont. at 533-34, 608 P.2d at 458.
We reaffirmed our commitment to the "overwhelming weight of the evidence" test in Brodniak v. State (1989), 239 Mont. 110, 115, 779 P.2d 71, 74, referring to that test as " ne method used by this Court to ascertain whether there is a reasonable possibility that the inadmissible evidence contributed to the verdict." In Brodniak, we applied a mixed test which borrowed language from both McKenzie and Gray, concluding that we must look both to the overwhelming evidence and the totality of the circumstances in assessing whether there is a reasonable possibility that the inadmissible evidence contributed to the verdict. Brodniak, 239 Mont. at 115, 779 P.2d at 74.
In State v. Fuhrmann (1996), 278 Mont. 396, 925 P.2d 1162, we expressed the belief that the federal harmless error rule and Montana's harmless error rule were "essentially the same," and concluded:
hat in either case overwhelming evidence of a defendant's guilt can render harmless a district court's error. McKenzie, 608 P.2d at 458; Brodniak, 779 P.2d at 74. Fuhrmann, 278 Mont. at 407, 925 P.2d at 1169.
Thus, it is clear that, over time, the "overwhelming evidence" analysis eclipsed the more substantive inquiry of whether the erroneously admitted evidence might have contributed to the conviction. The above cases demonstrate a recent inclination to simply tally the quantity of the admissible evidence of guilt, instead of evaluating the qualitative impact the inadmissible evidence might have had on the finder of fact.
There are two problems with this type of "scorecard" analysis. First, the test always involves "adding up" the admissible evidence on a case-by-case basis, to determine if it is overwhelming enough to transcend the effect of the inadmissible evidence, thereby ignoring the weight of the tainted evidence in favor of the sum of the other evidence. This ad hoc type of analysis results in an unpredictable and subjective framework which provides little guidance to parties in deciding what evidence to offer at trial. Moreover, the "overwhelming evidence" test may also have the unintended consequence of inviting the State to offer inadmissible yet damaging evidence in a strong case, even if by happenstance, since the worst that can happen is that the error is noted but deemed harmless. Neither result is desirable.
If we are to preserve the substantial rights of the accused and the fundamental fairness of the criminal trial, and provide consistent guidance to practitioners in the criminal practice, we must do more than simply quantify the admissible evidence offered by the State on a case-by-case basis. We therefore deem it appropriate to formally adopt an approach to harmless error issues which, first, defines for the trial court and the parties the type of error in question, and second, depending on the type of error defined, sets forth a uniform standard against which the error must be analyzed to determine if the error is sufficiently prejudicial to compel reversal of a conviction. We began this process last year when we distinguished between trial and structural errors, in State v. LaMere, 2000 MT 45, 39-50, 298 Mont. 358, 39-50, 2 P.3d 204, 39-50.
We now complete the analysis.
Today, we adopt a two-step analysis to determine whether the alleged error prejudiced the criminal defendant's right to a fair trial and is therefore reversible. The first step in the analysis
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