Kotteakos v. United States

Kotteakos v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided June 10, 1946
Full case name	Kotteakos v. United States
Citations	328 U.S. 750 ( more )
Holding
For a non-constitutional error that affected a defendant's substantial rights, a reviewing court must reverse the judgment unless there is a "fair assurance" that the error did not affect the outcome.
Court membership
Chief Justice vacant Associate Justices Hugo Black  · Stanley F. Reed Felix Frankfurter  · William O. Douglas Frank Murphy  · Robert H. Jackson Wiley B. Rutledge  · Harold H. Burton
Case opinions
Majority	Rutledge
Concurrence	Black
Jackson took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750(1946), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that for a non-constitutional error that affected a defendant's substantial rights, a reviewing court must reverse the judgment unless there is a "fair assurance" that the error did not affect the outcome. ^{[1] [2]} This case articulated the Kotteakos standard: an error is harmless unless it "had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict." ^[3]

Background

Kotteakos and 31 others were indicted under § 37 of the Criminal Code for a single general conspiracy to violate the National Housing Act by inducing lending institutions to make loans which would be offered to the Federal Housing Administration for insurance on the basis of false and fraudulent information. Nineteen defendants were brought to trial, and the cases of 13 were submitted to the jury. The evidence proved eight or more different conspiracies by separate groups of defendants which had no connection with each other except that all utilized one Brown as a broker to handle fraudulent applications. Evidence of dealings between Brown and defendants other than Kotteakos was admitted against Kotteakos, and the judge instructed the jury that only one conspiracy was charged and that the acts and declarations of one conspirator bound all. Kotteakos and six other defendants were convicted. ^[1]

Opinion of the court

The Supreme Court issued an opinion on June 10, 1946. Justice Hugo Black concurred without a separate opinion. ^[1]

Subsequent developments

For constitutional errors, the Supreme Court announced in Chapman v. California that the standard to find them harmless was "beyond a reasonable doubt." ^[2]

References

1. Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750 (1946).
2. Donald A. Winslow, Harmful Use of Harmless Error in Criminal Cases, 64 CORNELL L. REV. 538, 549 (1978-79).
3. Lieberman, Jethro K. (1999). "Harmless error". A Practical Companion to the Constitution. p. 225.

External links

• Text of Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750(1946) is available from: Cornell Findlaw Justia

This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain .