Fry v. Pliler

(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2006 1

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

FRY v. PLILER, WARDEN

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE NINTH CIRCUIT

No. 06–5247. Argued March 20, 2007—Decided June 11, 2007
The trial judge presiding over petitioner’s criminal trial excluded the
testimony of defense-witness Pamela Maples. After his conviction,
petitioner argued on appeal, inter alia, that the exclusion of Maples’
testimony violated Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U. S. 284, which
held that a combination of erroneous evidentiary rulings rose to the
level of a due-process violation. The California Court of Appeal did
not explicitly address that argument in affirming, but stated, without
specifying which harmless-error standard it was applying, that “no
possible prejudice” could have resulted in light of the cumulative na
ture of Maples’ testimony. The State Supreme Court denied discre
tionary review. Petitioner then filed a federal habeas petition raising
the due-process and other claims. The Magistrate Judge found the
state appellate court’s failure to recognize Chambers error an unrea
sonable application of clearly established law as set forth by this
Court, and disagreed with the finding of “no possible prejudice,” but
concluded there was an insufficient showing that the improper exclu
sion of Maples’ testimony had a “substantial and injurious effect” on
the jury’s verdict under Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U. S. 619, 631.
Agreeing, the District Court denied relief, and the Ninth Circuit af
firmed.
Held: In 28 U. S. C. §2254 proceedings, a federal court must assess the
prejudicial impact of constitutional error in a state-court criminal
trial under Brecht’s “substantial and injurious effect” standard,
whether or not the state appellate court recognized the error and re
viewed it for harmlessness under the “harmless beyond a reasonable
doubt” standard set forth in Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18, 24.
Pp. 3–8.
2 FRY v. PLILER

Syllabus

(a) That Brecht applies in §2254 cases even if the state appellate
court has not found, as did the state appellate court in Brecht, that
the error was harmless under Chapman, is indicated by this Court’s
Brecht opinion, which did not turn on whether the state court itself
conducted Chapman review, but instead cited concerns about finality,
comity, and federalism as the primary reasons for adopting a less on
erous standard on collateral review. 507 U. S., at 637. Since each of
these concerns applies with equal force whether or not the state court
reaches the Chapman question, it would be illogical to make the
standard of review turn upon that contingency. Brecht, supra, at
636, distinguished. Petitioner presents a false analogy in arguing
that, if Brecht applies whether or not the state appellate court con
ducted Chapman review, then Brecht would apply even if a State
eliminated appellate review altogether. The Court also rejects peti
tioner’s contention that, even if Brecht adopted a categorical rule,
post-Brecht developments—the Antiterrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), as interpreted in Mitchell v. Esparza,
540 U. S. 12—require a different review standard. That result is not
suggested by Esparza, which had no reason to decide the point, nor
by AEDPA, which sets forth a precondition, not an entitlement, to the
grant of habeas relief. Pp. 3–7.
(b) Petitioner’s argument that the judgment below must still be re
versed because excluding Maples’ testimony substantially and injuri
ously affected the jury’s verdict is rejected as not fairly encompassed
by the question presented. Pp. 7–8.
Affirmed.

SCALIA, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect
to all but footnote 1 and Part II–B. ROBERTS, C. J., and KENNEDY, THO
MAS, and ALITO, JJ., joined that opinion in full; STEVENS, SOUTER, and
GINSBURG, JJ., joined it as to all but Part II–B; and BREYER, J., joined
as to all but footnote 1 and Part II–B. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion con
curring in part and dissenting in part, in which SOUTER and GINSBURG,
JJ., joined, and in which BREYER, J., joined in part. BREYER, J., filed an
opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 06–5247
_________________

JOHN FRANCIS FRY, PETITIONER v. CHERYL
K. PLILER, WARDEN
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

[June 11, 2007]

JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.
We decide whether a federal habeas court must assess
the prejudicial impact of constitutional error in a state-
court criminal trial under the “substantial and injurious
effect” standard set forth in Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507
U. S. 619 (1993), when the state appellate court failed to
recognize the error and did not review it for harmlessness
under the “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt” standard
set forth in Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18 (1967).
I
After two mistrials on account of hung juries, a third
jury convicted petitioner of the 1992 murders of James
and Cynthia Bell. At trial, petitioner sought to attribute
the murders to one or more other persons. To that end, he
offered testimony of several witnesses who linked one
Anthony Hurtz to the killings. But the trial court ex
cluded the testimony of one additional witness, Pamela
Maples, who was prepared to testify that she had heard
Hurtz discussing homicides bearing some resemblance to
the murder of the Bells. In the trial court’s view, the
defense had provided insufficient evidence to link the
2 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of the Court

incidents described by Hurtz to the murders for which
petitioner was charged.
Following his conviction, petitioner appealed to the
California Court of Appeal, arguing (among other things)
that the trial court’s exclusion of Maples’ testimony de
prived him of a fair opportunity to defend himself, in
violation of Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U. S. 284 (1973)
(holding that a combination of erroneous evidentiary
rulings rose to the level of a due process violation). With
out explicitly addressing petitioner’s Chambers argument,
the state appellate court held that the trial court had not
abused its discretion in excluding Maples’ testimony under
California’s evidentiary rules, adding that “no possible
prejudice” could have resulted in light of the “merely
cumulative” nature of the testimony. People v. Fry, No.
A072396 (Ct. App. Cal., 1st App. Dist., Mar. 30, 2000),
App. 97, n. 17. The court did not specify which harmless-
error standard it was applying in concluding that peti
tioner suffered “no possible prejudice.” The Supreme
Court of California denied discretionary review, and peti
tioner did not then seek a writ of certiorari from this
Court.
Petitioner next filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus
in the United States District Court for the Eastern Dis
trict of California, raising the aforementioned due-process
claim (among others). The case was initially assigned to a
Magistrate Judge, who ultimately recommended denying
relief. He found the state appellate court’s failure to
recognize error under Chambers to be “an unreasonable
application of clearly established law as set forth by the
Supreme Court,” App. 180, and disagreed with the state
appellate court’s finding of “no possible prejudice.” But he
nevertheless concluded that “there ha[d] been an insuffi
cient showing that the improper exclusion of the testimony
of Ms. Maples had a substantial and injurious effect on the
jury’s verdict” under the standard set forth in Brecht.
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 3

Opinion of the Court

App. 181–182. The District Court adopted the Magistrate
Judge’s findings and recommendations in full, and a di
vided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit affirmed. We granted certiorari. 549 U. S.
___ (2006).
II

A

In Chapman, supra, a case that reached this Court on
direct review of a state-court criminal judgment, we held
that a federal constitutional error can be considered harm
less only if a court is “able to declare a belief that it was
harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id., at 24. In
Brecht, supra, we considered whether the Chapman stan
dard of review applies on collateral review of a state-court
criminal judgment under 28 U. S. C. §2254. Citing con
cerns about finality, comity, and federalism, we rejected
the Chapman standard in favor of the more forgiving
standard of review applied to nonconstitutional errors on
direct appeal from federal convictions. See Kotteakos v.
United States, 328 U. S. 750 (1946). Under that standard,
an error is harmless unless it “ ‘had substantial and injuri
ous effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.’ ”
Brecht, supra, at 631 (quoting Kotteakos, supra, at 776).
The question in this case is whether a federal court must
assess the prejudicial impact of the unconstitutional ex
clusion of evidence during a state-court criminal trial
under Brecht even if the state appellate court has not
found, as the state appellate court in Brecht had found,
that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt
under Chapman.1
——————
1 As this case comes to the Court, we assume (without deciding) that

the state appellate court’s decision affirming the exclusion of Maples’
testimony was an unreasonable application of Chambers v. Mississippi,
410 U. S. 284, 302 (1973). We also assume that the state appellate
court did not determine the harmlessness of the error under the Chap
4 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of the Court

We begin with the Court’s opinion in Brecht. The pri
mary reasons it gave for adopting a less onerous standard
on collateral review of state-court criminal judgments did
not turn on whether the state court itself conducted
Chapman review. The opinion explained that application
of Chapman would “undermin[e] the States’ interest in
finality,” 507 U. S., at 637; would “infring[e] upon [the
States’] sovereignty over criminal matters,” ibid.; would
undercut the historic limitation of habeas relief to those
“ ‘grievously wronged,’ ” ibid.; and would “impos[e] signifi
cant ‘societal costs,’ ” ibid. (quoting United States
v. Mechanik, 475 U. S. 66, 72 (1986)). Since each of
these concerns applies with equal force whether or not the
state court reaches the Chapman question, it would be
illogical to make the standard of review turn upon that
contingency.
The opinion in Brecht clearly assumed that the Kot
teakos standard would apply in virtually all §2254 cases.
It suggested an exception only for the “unusual case” in
which “a deliberate and especially egregious error of the
trial type, or one that is combined with a pattern of prose
cutorial misconduct . . . infect[s] the integrity of the pro
ceeding.” 507 U. S., at 638, n. 9. This, of course, has
nothing to do with whether the state court conducted
harmless-error review. The concurring and dissenting
opinions shared the assumption that Kotteakos would
almost always be the standard on collateral review. The
former stated in categorical terms that the “Kotteakos
standard” “will now apply on collateral review” of state
convictions, 507 U. S., at 643 (STEVENS, J., concurring).
Justice White’s dissent complained that under the Court’s
opinion Kotteakos would apply even where (as in this case)
the state court found that “no violation had occurred,” 507
——————

man standard, notwithstanding its ambiguous conclusion that the

exclusion of Maples’ testimony resulted in “no possible prejudice.”

 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 5

Opinion of the Court

U. S., at 644; and Justice O’Connor’s dissent stated that
Chapman would “no longer appl[y] to any trial error as
serted on habeas,” 507 U. S., at 651. Later cases also
assumed that Brecht’s applicability does not turn on
whether the state appellate court recognized the constitu
tional error and reached the Chapman question. See
Penry v. Johnson, 532 U. S. 782, 795 (2001); Calderon v.
Coleman, 525 U. S. 141, 145 (1998) (per curiam).
Petitioner’s contrary position misreads (or at least exag
gerates the significance of) a lone passage from our Brecht
opinion. In that passage, the Court explained:
“State courts are fully qualified to identify constitu
tional error and evaluate its prejudicial effect on the
trial process under Chapman, and state courts often
occupy a superior vantage point from which to evalu
ate the effect of trial error. For these reasons, it
scarcely seems logical to require federal habeas courts
to engage in the identical approach to harmless-error
review that Chapman requires state courts to engage
in on direct review.” 507 U. S., at 636 (citation
omitted).
But the quoted passage does little to advance petitioner’s
position. To say (a) that since state courts are required to
evaluate constitutional error under Chapman it makes no
sense to establish Chapman as the standard for federal
habeas review is not at all to say (b) that whenever a state
court fails in its responsibility to apply Chapman the
federal habeas standard must change. It would be foolish
to equate the two, in view of the other weighty reasons
given in Brecht for applying a less onerous standard on
collateral review—reasons having nothing to do with
whether the state court actually applied Chapman.
Petitioner argues that, if Brecht applies whether or not
the state appellate court conducted Chapman review, then
Brecht would apply even if a State eliminated appellate
6 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of the Court

review altogether. That is not necessarily so. The federal
habeas review rule applied to the class of case in which
state appellate review is available does not have to be the
same rule applied to the class of case where it is not. We
have no occasion to resolve that hypothetical (and highly
unrealistic) question now. In the case before us petitioner
did obtain appellate review of his constitutional claim; the
state court simply found the underlying claim weak and
therefore did not measure its prejudicial impact under
Chapman. The attempted analogy—between (1) eliminat
ing appellate review altogether and (2) providing appellate
review but rejecting a constitutional claim without assess
ing its prejudicial impact under Chapman—is a false one.
Petitioner contends that, even if Brecht adopted a cate
gorical rule, post-Brecht developments require a different
standard of review. Three years after we decided Brecht,
Congress passed, and the President signed, the Antiterror
ism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA),
under which a habeas petition may not be granted unless
the state court’s adjudication “resulted in a decision that
was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application
of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the
Supreme Court of the United States . . . .” 28 U. S. C.
§2254(d)(1). In Mitchell v. Esparza, 540 U. S. 12 (2003)
(per curiam), we held that, when a state court determines
that a constitutional violation is harmless, a federal court
may not award habeas relief under §2254 unless the harm
lessness determination itself was unreasonable. Petitioner
contends that §2254(d)(1), as interpreted in Esparza,
eliminates the requirement that a petitioner also satisfy
Brecht’s standard. We think not. That conclusion is not
suggested by Esparza, which had no reason to decide the
point. Nor is it suggested by the text of AEDPA, which
sets forth a precondition to the grant of habeas relief (“a
writ of habeas corpus . . . shall not be granted” unless the
conditions of §2254(d) are met), not an entitlement to it.
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 7

Opinion of the Court

Given our frequent recognition that AEDPA limited rather
than expanded the availability of habeas relief, see, e.g.,
Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 412 (2000), it is implau
sible that, without saying so, AEDPA replaced the Brecht
standard of “ ‘actual prejudice,’ ” 507 U. S., at 637 (quoting
United States v. Lane, 474 U. S. 438, 449 (1986)), with the
more liberal AEDPA/Chapman standard which requires
only that the state court’s harmless-beyond-a-reasonable
doubt determination be unreasonable. That said, it cer
tainly makes no sense to require formal application of both
tests (AEDPA/Chapman and Brecht) when the latter
obviously subsumes the former. Accordingly, the Ninth
Circuit was correct to apply the Brecht standard of review
in assessing the prejudicial impact of federal constitu
tional error in a state-court criminal trial.2
B
Petitioner argues that, even if Brecht provides the stan
dard of review, we must still reverse the judgment below
because the exclusion of Maples’ testimony substantially
and injuriously affected the jury’s verdict in this case.
That argument, however, is not fairly encompassed within
the question presented. We granted certiorari to decide a
question that has divided the Courts of Appeals—whether
Brecht or Chapman provides the appropriate standard of
review when constitutional error in a state-court trial is
first recognized by a federal court. Compare, e.g., Bains v.
Cambra, 204 F. 3d 964, 976–977 (CA9 2000), with Orn
dorff v. Lockhart, 998 F. 2d 1426, 1429–1430 (CA8 1993).
——————
2 We do not agree with petitioner’s amicus that Brecht’s concerns
regarding the finality of state-court criminal judgments and the diffi
culty of retrying a defendant years after the crime “have been largely
alleviated by [AEDPA],” which “sets strict time limitations on habeas
petitions and limits second or successive petitions as well.” Brief for
Innocence Network 7. Even cases governed by AEDPA can span a
decade, as the nearly 12-year gap between petitioner’s conviction and
the issuance of this decision illustrates.
8 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of the Court

It is true that the second sentence of the question pre
sented asks: “Does it matter which harmless error stan
dard is employed?” Pet. for Cert. I. But to ask whether
Brecht makes any real difference is not to ask whether the
Ninth Circuit misapplied Brecht in this particular case.
Petitioner seems to have understood this. Only in a brief
footnote of his petition did he hint that the Ninth Circuit
erred in its application of the Brecht standard. Pet. for
Cert. 23, n. 19.3 Indeed, if application of the Brecht stan
dard to the facts of this case were encompassed within the
question presented, so too would be the question of
whether there was constitutional error in the first place.
After all, it would not “matter which harmless error stan
dard is employed” if there were no underlying constitu
tional error. Unlike the dissenting JUSTICES, some of
whom would reverse the decision below on the ground that
the error was harmful under Brecht, and one of whom
would vacate the decision below on the ground that it is
unclear whether there was constitutional error in the first
instance, we read the question presented to avoid these
tangential and factbound questions, and limit our review
to the question of whether Chapman or Brecht provides
the governing standard.
——————
3 Thequestion presented included one additional issue: “[I]f the
Brecht standard applies, does the petitioner or the State bear the
burden of persuasion on the question of prejudice?” Pet. for Cert. I. We
have previously held that, when a court is “in virtual equipoise as to
the harmlessness of the error” under the Brecht standard, the court
should “treat the error . . . as if it affected the verdict . . . .” O’Neal v.
McAninch, 513 U. S. 432, 435 (1995). The majority opinion below did
not refer to O’Neal, presumably because the majority harbored no grave
doubt as to the harmlessness of the error. Neither did the dissenting
judge refer to O’Neal, presumably because she did not think the major
ity harbored grave doubt as to the harmlessness of the error. Moreover,
the State has conceded throughout this §2254 proceeding that it bears
the burden of persuasion. Thus, there is no basis on which to conclude
that the court below ignored O’Neal.
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 9

Opinion of the Court

* * *
We hold that in §2254 proceedings a court must assess
the prejudicial impact of constitutional error in a state-
court criminal trial under the “substantial and injurious
effect” standard set forth in Brecht, 507 U. S. 619, whether
or not the state appellate court recognized the error and
reviewed it for harmlessness under the “harmless beyond
a reasonable doubt” standard set forth in Chapman, 386
U. S. 18. Since the Ninth Circuit correctly applied the
Brecht standard rather than the Chapman standard, we
affirm the judgment below.
It is so ordered.
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

Opinion of STEVENS, J.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 06–5247
_________________

JOHN FRANCIS FRY, PETITIONER v. CHERYL
K. PLILER, WARDEN
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

[June 11, 2007]

JUSTICE STEVENS, with whom JUSTICE SOUTER and
JUSTICE GINSBURG join, and with whom JUSTICE BREYER
joins in part, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
While I join all of the Court’s opinion except Part II–B, I
am persuaded that we should also answer the question
whether the constitutional error was harmless under the
standard announced in Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U. S.
619 (1993). The parties and the Solicitor General as
amicus curiae fully briefed and argued the question, pre
sumably because it appears to fit within the awkwardly
drafted question that we agreed to review.1 Moreover, our
answer to the question whether the error was harmless
would emphasize the important point that the Brecht
standard, as more fully explained in our opinion in Kot
teakos v. United States, 328 U. S. 750 (1946), imposes a
significant burden of persuasion on the State.
Both the history of this litigation and the nature of the
constitutional error involved provide powerful support for
the conclusion that if the jurors had heard the testimony
——————
1 In Brecht itself the application of the standard of Kotteakos v.

United States, 328 U. S. 750 (1946), to the facts of the case was not even
arguably encompassed within the question presented. We nonetheless
found it appropriate to rule on whether the error was harmless under
that standard. See Brecht, 507 U. S., at 638 (“All that remains to be
decided is whether petitioner is entitled to relief”).
2 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of STEVENS, J.

of Pamela Maples, they would at least have had a reason
able doubt concerning petitioner’s guilt. Petitioner was
not found guilty until after he had been tried three times.
The first trial ended in a mistrial with the jury deadlocked
6 to 6. App. 121. The second trial also resulted in a mis
trial due to a deadlocked jury, this time 7 to 5 in favor of
conviction. Ibid. In the third trial, after the jurors had
been deliberating for 11 days, the foreperson advised the
judge that they were split 7 to 5 and “ ‘hopelessly dead
locked.’ ” Id., at 74–75. When the judge instructed the
jury to continue its deliberations, the foreperson requested
clarification on the definition of “reasonable doubt.” Id., at
75. The jury deliberated for an additional 23 days after
that exchange—a total of five weeks—before finally return
ing a guilty verdict.2
It is not surprising that some jurors harbored a reason
able doubt as to petitioner’s guilt weeks into their delib
erations. The only person to offer eyewitness testimony, a
disinterested truckdriver, described the killer as a man
who was 5’7” to 5’8” tall, weighed about 140 pounds, and
had a full head of hair. Tr. 4574 (Apr. 26, 1995). Peti
tioner is 6’2” tall, weighed 300 pounds at the time of the
murder, and is bald. Record, Doc. No. 13, Exh. L (arrest
report); Ibid., Exh. M (petitioner’s driver’s license). Seven
different witnesses linked the killings to a man named
Anthony Hurtz, some testifying that Hurtz had admitted
to them that he was in fact the killer. App. 60–64, 179.

——————
2 According to data compiled by the National Center for State Courts,

the average length of jury deliberations for a capital murder trial
in California is 12 hours. See Judge and Attorney Survey (California),
State of the States—Survey of Jury Improvement Efforts (2007), online
at http://www.ncsconline.org/D_research/cjs/xls/SOSJAData/CA_JA_
State.xls (as visited June 8, 2007, and available in Clerk of Court’s case
file). Three days before the jury reached a verdict in this noncapital
case, the trial judge speculated that it was perhaps the longest delib
eration in the history of Solano County. Tr. 5315 (June 5, 1995).
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 3

Opinion of STEVENS, J.

Each of those witnesses, unlike the truckdriver, was im
peached by evidence of bias, either against Hurtz or for
petitioner. Id., at 61–64, 73, 179–180.
However, Pamela Maples, a cousin of Hurtz’s who was
in all other respects a disinterested witness, did not testify
at either of petitioner’s first two trials. During the third
trial, she testified out of the presence of the jury that she
had overheard statements by Hurtz that he had commit
ted a double murder strikingly similar to that witnessed
by the truckdriver. As the Magistrate Judge found, the
exclusion of Maples’ testimony for lack of foundation was
clear constitutional error under Chambers v. Mississippi,
410 U. S. 284 (1973), and the State does not argue other
wise.3 Cf. Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U. S. 1, 8 (1986)
(“The testimony of more disinterested witnesses . . . would
quite naturally be given much greater weight by the
jury”).
Chambers error is by nature prejudicial. We have said
that Chambers “does not stand for the proposition that the
defendant is denied a fair opportunity to defend himself
whenever a state or federal rule excludes favorable evi
dence.” United States v. Scheffer, 523 U. S. 303, 316
(1998). Rather, due process considerations hold sway over
state evidentiary rules only when the exclusion of evidence
“undermine[s] fundamental elements of the defendant’s
defense.” Id., at 315. Hence, as a matter of law and logi
cal inference, it is well-nigh impossible for a reviewing
court to conclude that such error “did not influence the
jury, or had but very slight effect” on its verdict. Kot
teakos, 328 U. S., at 764; see also O’Neal v. McAninch, 513
U. S. 432, 445 (1995) (“[W]hen a habeas court is in grave

——————
3 As the Magistrate Judge remarked, “[j]ust how many double execu
tion style homicides involving a female driver shot in the head and a
male passenger also shot in a parked car could there be in a community
proximate to the victims’ murder herein?” App. 179.
4 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of STEVENS, J.

doubt as to the harmlessness of an error that affects sub
stantial rights, it should grant relief”).
It is difficult to imagine a less appropriate case for an
exception to that commonsense proposition. We found in
Parker v. Gladden, 385 U. S. 363 (1966) (per curiam), that
26 hours of juror deliberations in a murder trial “indi
cat[ed] a difference among them as to the guilt of peti
tioner.” Id., at 365. Here, the jury was deprived of signifi
cant evidence of third-party guilt, and still we measure the
length of deliberations by weeks, not hours. In light of the
jurors’ evident uncertainty, the prospect of rebutting the
near-conclusive presumption that the Chambers error did
substantial harm vanishes completely.4
We have not been shy in emphasizing that federal ha
beas courts do not lightly find constitutional error. See
Carey v. Musladin, 549 U. S. ___ (2006). It follows that
when they do find an error, they may not lightly discount
its significance. Rather, a harmlessness finding requires

——————
4 See United States v. Fields, 483 F. 3d 313, 379 (CA5 2007)

(Benavides, J., dissenting from Part II–A–I and dissenting, in part,
from the judgment) (“Courts often have been unwilling to find error
harmless where the record, as in this case, affirmatively shows that the
jurors struggled with their verdict”); Kennedy v. Lockyer, 379 F. 3d
1041, 1056, n. 18 (CA9 2004) (“From the fact that the first trial ended
in a mistrial, as well as the fact that the jury deliberated for a consid
erable amount of time in the second trial, we infer that the question as
to [the defendant’s] guilt or innocence was a close one in both trials”);
Powell v. Collins, 332 F. 3d 376, 401 (CA6 2003) (finding prejudicial
error in a habeas case in part because the jury at one point told the
court that it was “ ‘at a stalemate’ ”); United States v. Varoudakis, 233
F. 3d 113, 127 (CA1 2000) (noting, in weighing harmlessness, that “the
jury’s ‘impasse’ note reveals uncertainty about [the defendant’s] guilt”);
United States v. Ottersburg, 76 F. 3d 137, 140 (CA7 1996) (“The length
of the jury’s deliberations makes clear that this case was not an easy
one”); Medina v. Barnes, 71 F. 3d 363, 369 (CA10 1995) (basing preju
dice determination in a habeas case in part on the fact that “at one
point during their deliberations, the jurors indicated that they might be
unable to reach a unanimous verdict”).
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 5

Opinion of STEVENS, J.

“fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without
stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the
judgment was not substantially swayed by the error.”
Kotteakos, 328 U. S., at 765. Given “all that happened” in
this case, and given the nature of the error, I cannot agree
with the Ninth Circuit’s conclusion that the erroneous
exclusion of Maples’ testimony was harmless under that
standard.
Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the Court
of Appeals.
 Cite as: 551 U. S. ____ (2007) 1

Opinion of BREYER, J.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________

No. 06–5247
_________________

JOHN FRANCIS FRY, PETITIONER v. CHERYL
K. PLILER, WARDEN
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

[June 11, 2007]

JUSTICE BREYER, concurring in part and dissenting in
part.
I agree with the Court that Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507
U. S. 619 (1993), sets forth the proper standard of review.
Cf. id., at 643 (STEVENS, J., concurring). At the same
time, I agree with JUSTICE STEVENS that we should con
sider the application of the standard, that the error was
not harmless, and that “Chambers error is by nature
prejudicial.” Ante, at 3 (opinion concurring in part and
dissenting in part) (citing Chambers v. Mississippi, 410
U. S. 284 (1973)). Cf. Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U. S. 419,
435 (1995) (similar statement as to errors under
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963)). Nonetheless, I
would remand this case rather than reversing the Court of
Appeals.
My reason arises out of the fact that here, for purposes
of deciding whether Chambers error exists, the question of
harm is inextricably tied to other aspects of the trial
court’s determination. The underlying evidentiary judg
ment at issue involved a weighing of the probative value of
proffered evidence against, e.g., its cumulative nature, its
tendency to confuse or to prejudice the jury, or the likeli
hood that it will simply waste the jury’s time. See App.
96–97; Cal. Evid. Code Ann. §352 (West 1995); cf. Fed.
Rule Evid. 403. In this context, to find a Chambers error a
2 FRY v. PLILER

Opinion of BREYER, J.

court must take account both of the way in which (and
extent to which) the trial court misweighed the relevant
admissibility factors and of the extent to which doing so
harmed the defendant. Moreover, to find this kind of error
harmless, as the Court of Appeals found it, should pre
clude the possibility of a Chambers error; but to find this
kind of error harmful does not guarantee the contrary. A
garden-variety nonharmless misapplication of evidentiary
principles normally will not rise to the level of a constitu
tional, Chambers, mistake. Cf., e.g., United States v. Schef
fer, 523 U. S. 303, 308 (1998).
All this, it seems to me, requires reconsideration by
the Court of Appeals of its Chambers determination. I
would not consider the question whether that exclusion of
evidence amounted to Chambers error because that ques
tion is not before us, see ante, at 3, n. 1 (opinion of the
Court). But the logically inseparable question of harm is
before us; and that, I believe, is sufficient.
I would remand the case to the Ninth Circuit so that,
taking account of the points JUSTICE STEVENS raises, ante,
at 1–4, it can reconsider whether there was an error of
admissibility sufficiently serious to violate Chambers. I
therefore join the Court’s opinion except as to footnote 1
and Part II–B, and I join JUSTICE STEVENS’ opinion in
part.