James Edward Hegler v. Robert G. Borg, Warden Dan Lungren

OVERVIEW

California state prisoner James Edward Hegler appeals the district court’s decision to dismiss his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging his conviction and sentence for murder. Hegler contends the district court erred by treating the violation of his derivative Sixth Amendment constitutional right to be present at the reading of trial testimony to the jury during deliberations as a harmless “trial error,” rather than a “structural error.” We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we affirm.

BACKGROUND

1. The Law

The United States Supreme Court in Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279 , 111 S.Ct. 1246 , 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991), divided the class of constitutional errors that may occur during the course of a criminal proceeding into two categories: trial error and structural error. Structural error is a “defect affecting the framework within which the trial proceeds, rather than simply an error in the trial process itself.” Id. at 310 , 111 S.Ct. at 1265. Accordingly, where a criminal proceeding is undermined by a structural error the, “criminal trial cannot reliably serve its function as a vehicle for determination of guilt or…