Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 308

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

147 

Opinion of the Court 

should  be  sentenced  to  death.”  Id.,  at  2973.  And  he  in­
structed  the  jury  that  the  State  bore  the  burden  of  proving 
beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  that  the  aggravating  circum­
stances outweighed the mitigating factors.  Id., at 2965. 

With respect to “the procedure” by which the jury should 
reach  its  verdict,  the  judge  told  the  jury  only  the  following: 

“[Y]ou,  the  trial  jury,  must  consider  all  of  the  relevant 
evidence  raised  at  trial,  the  evidence  and  testimony  re­
ceived  in  this  hearing  and  the  arguments  of  counsel. 
From  this  you  must  determine  whether,  beyond  a  rea­
sonable  doubt,  the  aggravating  circumstances,  which 
[Spisak] has been found guilty of committing in the sep­
arate  counts  are  sufﬁcient  to  outweigh  the  mitigating 
factors present in this case. 

.

.

.

“If  all  twelve  members  of  the  jury  ﬁnd  by  proof  be­
yond  a  reasonable  doubt  that  the  aggravating  circum­
stance  in  each  separate  count  outweighs  the  mitigating 
factors, then you must return that ﬁnding to the Court. 
.
“On the other hand, if after considering all of the rele­
vant evidence raised at trial, the evidence and the testi­
mony  received  at  this  hearing  and  the  arguments  of 
counsel,  you  ﬁnd  that  the  State  failed  to  prove  beyond 
a  reasonable  doubt  that  the  aggravating  circumstances 
which  [Spisak]  has  been  found  guilty  of  committing  in 
the separate counts outweigh the mitigating factors, you 
will then proceed to determine which of two possible life 
imprisonment  sentences  to  recommend  to  the  Court.” 
Id., at 2973–2975. 

. 

The judge gave the jury two verdict forms for each aggra­

vating factor.  The ﬁrst of the two forms said: 

“ ‘We  the  jury  in  this  case . . . do ﬁnd  beyond  a  reason­
able  doubt  that  the  aggravating  circumstance  .  .  .  was 
sufﬁcient  to  outweigh  the  mitigating  factors  present  in 
this case.