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The Case Against Automatic Reversal of Structural Errors |
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Steven M. Shepard [View as PDF]
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117 Yale L.J. 1180 (2008).
This Note describes the case law governing three structural errors and shows
that the rule of automatic reversal has led appellate courts to narrow the scope of the rights at
issue. To avoid this effect, the Note proposes a new framework for determining whether a given
type of error is “structural” and thus requires automatic reversal. The rule of automatic reversal
should apply only to types of error that never contribute to a verdict.
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