California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from The People v. Taeotui, D054491, No. SCN222540 (Cal. App. 2010):
The standard of review, as set forth in Chapman, "'requir[es] the beneficiary of a [federal] constitutional error to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained.' (Chapman, supra, 386 U.S. at p. 24.) 'To say that an error did not contribute to the ensuing verdict is... to find that error unimportant in relation to everything else the jury considered on the issue in question, as revealed in the record.' (Yates v. Evatt (1991) 500 U.S. 391, 403.) Thus, the focus is what the jury actually decided and whether the error might have tainted its decision. That is to say, the issue is 'whether the... verdict actually rendered in this trial
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