The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Doyle, 130 F.3d 523 (2nd Cir. 1997):
In other words, then, we do not engage in an inquiry of harmless error review such as was enunciated in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 23, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), which looked at the case in its entirety to analyze the effect of the error on the jury's verdict. Rather, we assess only the charge, taken as a whole, in order to determine whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury misinterpreted the reasonable doubt instruction. Cf. United States v. Birbal, 62 F.3d 456, 461-62 (2d Cir.1995) (under plain error standard, question on appeal is "whether, taking the jury instructions as a whole, there is a 'reasonable likelihood' that the jury understood the instructions to allow conviction based on insufficient proof"). Here, therefore, we need only decide whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury misunderstood the reasonable doubt standard.
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