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Writ of Habeas Corpus – Harmless Error

By: Derek Hawkins//September 21, 2015//

Writ of Habeas Corpus – Harmless Error

By: Derek Hawkins//September 21, 2015//

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Civil

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and KANNE and TINDER, Circuit Judges

Writ of Habeas Corpus – Harmless Error

No. 13-3723 Percell Dansberry v. Randy Pfister

Trial court erroneous warning to appellant regarding mandatory minimum sentence faced was harmless error.

“Similarly, we think an erroneous admonishment of the kind we have here—an incorrect statement of a defendant’s mandatory minimum sentence—is nonstructural. It does not affect the entire proceedings in the way that, e.g., an outright denial of counsel would. Cf. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. at 149 (giving examples of structural errors). And its effects are likely to be identifiable and measurable. Cf. id. at 150 (finding structural error where the effects are “necessarily unquantifiable and indeterminate”). In short, an erroneous admonishment about a mandatory minimum sentence does not defy analysis for harmless error.”

Affirmed.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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