Commonwealth v. Villanueva

*906On appeal the defendant claims that the judge’s misstatement was per se reversible error. Citing Commonwealth v. Chotain, 31 Mass. App. Ct. 336 (1991), she argues that removing an issue from the jury’s consideration constituted a structural defect in the trial requiring automatic reversal.

The defendant misunderstands the structural defect doctrine. A structural error is one that so infringes on a defendant’s right to the basic components of a fair trial that it can never be considered harmless. See Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 309 (1991). Such errors include, for example, deprivation…