George Bernard Eberhardt v. Donald E. Bordenkircher, Warden, Kentucky State Penitentiary, Respondent

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding that even a “[r]elatively brief and [un]repeated comment” may have prejudicial effect if a judge does not give a strong and timely curative instruction
• holding the government to its “heavy burden” to show that a constitutional error was harmless
• reasoning in habeas review that showing “mug shot” evidence to the jury was one of several trial errors having a cumulative prejudicial effect that precluded a finding of harmless error
• other trial errors adding to the cumulative prejudicial effect included introduction of mug shots and prosecutor’s unfounded assertions that defendant’s witnesses were being paid for their testimony
• error was not harmless where the defendant “presented an alibi which, though far from indisputable, was consistent and credible enough that it might have been accepted by a reasonable juror”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).