ABSTRACT
The phrase "harmless error" refers to an error by a judge in the conduct of a trial that an appellate court finds is not sufficient for it to reverse or modify the lower court's judgment at trial. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure govern the issue of harmless error, but the US Supreme Court has established and modified its own parameters for harmless error. In 1967 the Court in Chapman v. California, 386 US 18, further narrowed its interpretation of the harmless-error standard designed to protect a defendant's constitutional rights. Justice Black understood that allowing all errors to be classified as reversible would result in unrealistic goals on the part of trial courts. The Court in Chapman set forth the test for determining whether a constitutional error is harmless. The harmless-error test from Chapman, as well as state and federal codes, remains in effect.
