Commonwealth v. Rodgers

While I agree with the result reached by the majority in Part II B of its opinion that the alleged Miranda violation was in any event harmless error, I cannot accept the dichotomy which the opinion seeks to draw in its discussion of the harmless error doctrine. In my view such a distinction is for all practical purposes non-existent. Asi discussed by the United States Supreme Court in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L. Ed.2d 705 (1967), the concept of harmless error represents a determination by a court that although testimony has been erroneously admitted at trial, it is…