Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 309

148 

SMITH  v.  SPISAK 

Opinion of the Court 

“ ‘We the jury recommend that the sentence of death be 
imposed . . . .’ ”   Id., at 2975–2976. 

The other verdict form read: 

“ ‘We  the  jury  .  .  .  do  ﬁnd  that  the  aggravating  cir­
cumstances  .  .  .  are  not  sufﬁcient  to  outweigh  the  miti­
gation factors present in this case. 
“ ‘We  the  jury  recommend  that  the  defendant  .  .  .  be 
sentenced to life imprisonment . . . .’ ”   Id., at 2976. 

The instructions and forms made clear that, to recommend 
a  death  sentence,  the  jury  had  to  ﬁnd,  unanimously  and  be­
yond a reasonable doubt, that each of the aggravating factors 
outweighed any mitigating circumstances.  But the instruc­
tions did not say that the jury must determine the existence 
of  each  individual  mitigating  factor  unanimously.  Neither 
the  instructions  nor  the  forms  said  anything  about  how—or 
even  whether—the  jury  should  make  individual  determina­
tions  that  each  particular  mitigating  circumstance  existed. 
They  focused  only  on  the  overall  balancing  question.  And 
the  instructions  repeatedly  told  the  jury  to  “conside[r]  all 
of  the  relevant  evidence.”  Id.,  at  2974.  In  our  view  the 
instructions  and  verdict  forms  did  not  clearly  bring  about, 
either through what they said or what they implied, the cir­
cumstance that Mills found critical, namely, 

“a  substantial  possibility  that  reasonable  jurors,  upon 
receiving the judge’s instructions in this case, and in at­
tempting  to  complete  the  verdict  form  as  instructed, 
well may have thought they were precluded from consid­
ering any mitigating evidence unless all 12 jurors agreed 
on  the  existence  of  a  particular  such  circumstance.” 
486 U. S., at 384. 

We consequently conclude that the state court’s decision up­
holding  these  forms  and  instructions  was  not  “contrary  to, 
or . . . an unreasonable application of, clearly established Fed­