Greer v. Miller

Charles Miller (defendant), Randy Williams, and Clarence Armstrong were accused of kidnapping, robbing, and murdering Neil Gorsuch in 1980. When Miller was arrested, police issued Miranda warnings, and Miller chose to remain silent. Williams entered a plea agreement and testified against Miller and Armstrong at their separate trials. Miller took the stand to defend himself at trial, claiming that he had no part in the crime and that Williams and Armstrong came to Miller’s home after the murder to seek Miller’s advice. Seconds into cross-examination, the prosecutor asked Miller, “Why didn’t you tell this story to anybody when you got arrested?” Miller’s attorney immediately objected, and the trial judge told the jury to ignore the question. The prosecutor did not mention Miller’s post-Miranda silence again. During jury instructions, the trial court generally told the jury to “disregard questions . . . to which objections were sustained.” The jury convicted Miller, and he was sentenced to 80 years in prison. Throughout state and federal appeals, Miller raised a Doyle claim, arguing that the prosecutor’s reference to his post-Miranda silence violated his due-process rights. The government responded that if the prosecutor’s question was improper, it was a harmless error. The Illinois Appellate Court reversed Miller’s conviction due to the Doyle error, but the Illinois Supreme Court reinstated Miller’s conviction, finding that the Doyle error was harmless because sufficient evidence supported Miller’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Miller then filed a federal habeas petition, and the district court denied it, using harmless-error reasoning. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed, finding that the Doyle violation was not harmless error. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.