463 Mass. 353 - Appellee Commonwealth Brief - Mass Cases

factors call for the reviewing Court, in light of the
entire record, to consider many potentially pertinent
factors, including "the premise of the defense" -and
"whether the erroneously admitted evidence was merely
cumulative of properly admitted evidence." Id.
3. A Reviewing Court Can Always Consider
Whether The Strength Of The
Commonwealth's Case "Radiates From A
Core Of Tainted Evidence."
Ronald Mendes argues, as the majority of the panel
of the Appeals Court in this case held below, that
because the certificates of analysis were relevant to
an element of the offense, only evidence that was
admitted in the Commonwealth's case in chief should be
considered in the harmless error analysis. (RonM.Br.
36-41.) This approach is erroneous. This Court has
never adopted any such approach, which improperly
conflates harmless error analysis with the standard for
ruling on a motion for required finding of not guilty.
We know that this approach is erroneous, because
under the Chapman standard, as this Court has just
recently reiterated, the "essential question" has
always been "whether the error had, or might have had,
an effect on the tact finder and whether the error
contributed to or might have contributed to the
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