Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 444

529US2

Unit: $U46

[10-07-01 17:18:24] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 362 (2000)

369

Opinion of the Court

ity” that Williams would pose a serious continuing threat to
society.

Id., at 89.

The evidence offered by Williams’ trial counsel at the sen-
tencing hearing consisted of the testimony of Williams’
mother, two neighbors, and a taped excerpt from a statement
by a psychiatrist. One of the neighbors had not been pre-
viously interviewed by defense counsel, but was noticed by
counsel in the audience during the proceedings and asked to
testify on the spot. The three witnesses brieﬂy described
Williams as a “nice boy” and not a violent person.
Id., at
124. The recorded psychiatrist’s testimony did little more
than relate Williams’ statement during an examination that
in the course of one of his earlier robberies, he had removed
the bullets from a gun so as not to injure anyone.

In his cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses, Wil-
liams’ counsel repeatedly emphasized the fact that Williams
had initiated the contact with the police that enabled them
to solve the murder and to identify him as the perpetrator
of the recent assaults, as well as the car thefts.
In closing
argument, Williams’ counsel characterized Williams’ confes-
sional statements as “dumb,” but asked the jury to give
weight to the fact that he had “turned himself in, not on one
crime but on four . . . that the [police otherwise] would not
Id., at 140. The weight of defense counsel’s
have solved.”
closing, however, was devoted to explaining that it was difﬁ-
cult to ﬁnd a reason why the jury should spare Williams’ life.2

2 In defense counsel’s words: “I will admit too that it is very difﬁcult to
ask you to show mercy to a man who maybe has not shown much mercy
I doubt very seriously that he thought much about mercy when
himself.
he was in Mr. Stone’s bedroom that night with him.
I doubt very seri-
ously that he had mercy very highly on his mind when he was walking
I doubt very
along West Green and the incident with Alberta Stroud.
seriously that he had mercy on his mind when he took two cars that didn’t
belong to him. Admittedly it is very difﬁcult to get us and ask that you
give this man mercy when he has shown so little of it himself. But I
Id., at 132–133.
would ask that you would.”