Cumulative error requires consideration of all errors

Kasper Schirer won in State v. Cameron Taylor, No. 118,792 (Kan. October 8, 2021), obtaining a new trial in a Finney County marijuana possession, battery on a law enforcement officer, and criminal threat prosecution. The COA had ordered a new trial on the possession charge based on a suppression issue, but affirmed the remaining convictions despite finding four additional trial errors, includingviolations of in limine orders, and prosecutorial error in closing argument. The COA had found that the trial errors were individually and cumulatively harmless with regard to the remaining counts. The KSC granted review on whether the errors were harmless under the cumulative error rule and found that the COA had misapplied the cumulative error rule: 

At the outset, it is readily apparent the panel erred in three distinctive ways in its cumulative error analysis. First, it failed to consider the district court's erroneous denial of the marijuana evidence in its analysis. Second, it failed to apply Chapman's constitutional harmless error test, when at least three of the five errors implicated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Third, it failed to question whether the errors' cumulative effect savaged Taylor's credibility although it observed the jury's credibility determination affected the verdict. 

The KSC went on to apply the correct cumulative error test and concluded that a new trial was required on all counts:

With the burden on the State to show harmless constitutional error, we hold the prosecution fails to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the cumulative effect of all five errors did not affect the trial's outcome. Had the jury believed Taylor's version of the incident—or just found his testimony created a reasonable doubt—the jury would have been legally required to return not guilty verdicts on the battery and threat charges.

As a result, the KSC reversed the counts affirmed by the COA and remanded the entire ase to the district court with directions to give Mr. Taylor a new trial.