Word: error
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...pressure of a plausible threat of violence. Ironically, despite its ruling that forced confessions could be harmless in some circumstances, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Arizona to give Fulminante a new trial on the grounds that in his case the introduction of a coerced confession was not a harmless error. Without the two confessions, the prosecution may not have had enough evidence to convict...
...court's conservative members could agree on every aspect of the case. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for a majority that included Souter, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia, argued that introducing an involuntary confession at trial was merely a procedural error. He distinguished such "harmless errors" from "structural defects" such as a biased judge or a denial of the defendant's right to an attorney. Unfair practices of that magnitude, he said, would still trigger an automatic reversal on appeal...
...taxes in right on time. But then a few weeks later I got a note from the Internal Revenue Service. It was a nice note, as these things go. The IRS computer has definitely been through charm school in recent years. But "as a result of an error we have corrected on Schedule E of your return...
...More like a finger. Still, because I had done my return with one of those computer software packages that promises no mistakes (and because my name and face were on that computer software package), I was more than a little curious to know just what the error...
...wrote back. "You corrected an error on my return? Getcho hands off my return!" Then I tore that up and sent, instead, a meek request that they identify my error. Call it a sixth sense I have for dealing with bureaucracy...