Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 302.0

Cite as: 558 U. S. 139 (2010) 

141 

Opinion of the Court 

Richard  Cordray,  Attorney  General  of  Ohio,  argued  the 
cause for petitioner.  With him on the briefs were Benjamin 
C.  Mizer,  Solicitor  General,  Alexandra  T.  Schimmer,  Chief 
Deputy Solicitor General, and Kimberly A. Olson and David 
M. Lieberman, Deputy Solicitors. 

Michael  J.  Benza,  by  appointment  of  the  Court,  557  U. S. 
965, argued the cause for respondent.  With him on the brief 
was Alan Rossman.* 

Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. 

Frank  G.  Spisak,  Jr.,  the  respondent,  was  convicted  in  an 
Ohio  trial  court  of  three  murders  and  two  attempted  mur­
ders.  He was sentenced to death.  He ﬁled a habeas corpus 
petition  in  federal  court,  claiming  that  constitutional  errors 
occurred  at  his  trial.  First,  Spisak  claimed  that  the  jury 
instructions at the penalty phase unconstitutionally required 
the  jury  to  consider  in  mitigation  only  those  factors  that 
the  jury  unanimously  found  to  be  mitigating.  See  Mills 
v.  Maryland,  486  U. S.  367  (1988).  Second,  Spisak  claimed 
that  he  suffered  signiﬁcant  harm  as  a  result  of  his  coun­
sel’s inadequate closing argument at the penalty phase of the 
proceeding.  See  Strickland  v.  Washington,  466  U. S.  668 
(1984).  The Federal Court of Appeals accepted these argu­

*A  brief  of  amici  curiae  urging  reversal  was  ﬁled  for  the  Common­
wealth of Pennsylvania et al. by Thomas W. Corbett, Jr., Attorney General 
of Pennsylvania, and Amy Zapp, Chief Deputy Attorney General, by Rich­
ard  S.  Gebelein,  Chief  Deputy  Attorney  General  of  Delaware,  and  by  the 
Attorneys  General  for  their  respective  States  as  follows:  Troy  King  of 
Alabama, Terry Goddard of Arizona, Edmund G. Brown, Jr., of California, 
John  Suthers  of  Colorado,  Lawrence  G.  Wasden  of  Idaho,  Lisa  Madigan 
of  Illinois,  Steve  Six  of  Kansas,  Jack  Conway  of  Kentucky,  Steve  Bullock 
of  Montana,  Catherine  Cortez  Masto  of  Nevada,  W.  A.  Drew  Edmondson 
of Oklahoma, Henry D. McMaster of South Carolina, Lawrence E. Long of 
South Dakota, Greg Abbott of Texas, Mark L. Shurtleff of Utah, William 
C. Mims of Virginia, and Bruce A. Salzburg of Wyoming. 

Roy T. Englert, Jr., ﬁled a brief for Steven Lubet et al. as amici curiae.