Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Prosecutorial Comments on Defendant's Failure to Testify - Harmless Error Standard

Authors

Renee E. Solomon

Abstract

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that prosecutorial comments regarding the defendant's failure to testify result in prejudicial error and the burden then rests on the Commonwealth to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the error was harmless. Furthermore, if there was a finding that the improperly admitted references could have in some way affected the outcome of a verdict, the error could not be found to be harmless, regardless of the weight of the evidence against the defendant. Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 626 A.2d 141 (Pa. 1993).

First Page

593

Recommended Citation

Renee E. Solomon, Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Prosecutorial Comments on Defendant's Failure to Testify - Harmless Error Standard, 32 Duq. L. Rev. 593 (1994).
Available at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr/vol32/iss3/9