Opinion ID: 759483
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding prosecution; and

Text: 55 (4) The murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in committing and fleeing after committing aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping. 56 At issue on appeal is the second ground. The district court had defined this factor for the jury as follows: 57 The murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or depravity of mind. 58 HEINOUS means extremely wicked or shockingly evil. 59 ATROCIOUS means outrageously wicked and vile. 60 CRUEL means designed to inflict a high degree of pain, utter indifference to, or enjoyment of, the suffering of others, pitiless. 61 In holding this factor to be impermissible, the district court cited Houston, and Shell v. Mississippi, 498 U.S. 1, 111 S.Ct. 313, 112 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990) (per curiam). In Houston, we held that this same Tennessee instruction (minus the appended definitions of the three terms) was unconstitutionally vague. Houston, 50 F.3d at 387. Established Supreme Court precedent had held that simple heinous, atrocious, or cruel language is unconstitutionally vague. See Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. 40, 113 S.Ct. 528, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (1992); Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U.S. 356, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988). We gave no explanation in Houston for why the limitation to torture and depravity of mind did not suffice to cure this vagueness problem. Indeed, the Supreme Court suggested that such a limitation might suffice in dicta in Maynard, 486 U.S. at 365, 108 S.Ct. 1853. But in Houston, the state conceded that the instruction was vague and we held accordingly. 62 In Shell, the Supreme Court disapproved of a set of instructions similar to the ones here. The instructions in Shell lacked the torture and depravity modifier, but appended individual definitions of heinous, atrocious, and cruel that are functionally and virtually equivalent to those used in this case. Shell, 498 U.S. at 2, 111 S.Ct. 313 (Marshall, J., concurring). The Court held that these definitions did not suffice to cure the vagueness problem. Id. at 1, 111 S.Ct. 313; see id. at 2, 111 S.Ct. 313 (Marshall, J., concurring). 63 In combination, then, Houston and Shell require us to hold that the instructions on this point in this case were constitutionally infirm. 64 The state offers two arguments against overturning the sentence on this ground. First, it asserts that this claim is procedurally barred for Coe. Despite the state's assertion, however, Coe did raise the issue in his direct appeal, apparently by incorporating an argument from his motion for a new trial that the potential aggravating circumstances presented to the jury were (federally) unconstitutionally vague. Regardless of whether the state supreme court should not have addressed an issue raised in that manner, it upheld the statute on the merits against Coe's challenge. Coe, 655 S.W.2d at 913. The court cited a case that upheld the state statute, State v. Austin, 618 S.W.2d 738, 742 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1128, 102 S.Ct. 980, 71 L.Ed.2d 116 (1981). That case relied on an earlier case, State v. Dicks, 615 S.W.2d 126, 131 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 933, 102 S.Ct. 431, 70 L.Ed.2d 240 (1981), that approved the heinous, atrocious, or cruel ... torture or depravity of mind instruction on the purported grounds of a United States Supreme Court decision (Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242, 255-56, 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d 913 (1976)). Therefore, the claim is not procedurally barred. 65 The state next argues that any error stemming from this aggravating factor is harmless. To answer this question, unfortunately, we must venture into a thicket; it is unclear if we may engage in harmless-error analysis when dealing with an infirm aggravating factor, or if instead this is a matter reserved for the state trial and appellate courts. We join the four other circuits that have squarely addressed this question and hold that we are indeed permitted to perform a harmless-error analysis here. See Billiot v. Puckett, 135 F.3d 311 (5th Cir.1998), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 119 S.Ct. 413, 142 L.Ed.2d 336 (1998); Davis v. Executive Director of Dept. of Corrections, 100 F.3d 750, 768 n. 18 (10th Cir.1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1215, 117 S.Ct. 1703, 137 L.Ed.2d 828 (1997); Williams v. Clarke, 40 F.3d 1529, 1539-40 (8th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1033, 115 S.Ct. 1397, 131 L.Ed.2d 247 (1995); Smith v. Dixon, 14 F.3d 956, 974-81 (4th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 841, 115 S.Ct. 129, 130 L.Ed.2d 72 (1994); see also O'Guinn v. Dutton, 88 F.3d 1409, 1461 (6th Cir.1996) (en banc) (Batchelder, J., dissenting) (six judges of this court espousing this conclusion in a dissent from a majority opinion that did not reach the merits), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 754, 136 L.Ed.2d 690 (1997). 66 We must make an initial distinction. This discussion is only an issue in this case because Tennessee is a weighing state, in which the jury weighs aggravating factors against mitigating factors. In non-weighing states, the sentencer must find at least one aggravating circumstance to make a convicted murderer eligible for the death penalty. Once the factor is found, the jury weighs the totality of the circumstances. Therefore, if multiple aggravators are found but an appellate court strikes one of them down, the death sentence can stand as it is. This is because the sentencer has still found at least one aggravating factor, and the invalidation of another aggravator does not necessarily change the totality of the circumstances that are considered to arrive at a sentence (though other errors might do so, and could necessitate reversal). See Stringer v. Black, 503 U.S. 222, 229, 112 S.Ct. 1130, 117 L.Ed.2d 367 (1992); Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983); see also Tuggle v. Netherland, 516 U.S. 10, 116 S.Ct. 283, 133 L.Ed.2d 251 (1995). In a weighing state, by contrast, when a court invalidates one of the aggravators, it has removed a mass from one side of the scale. There is no way to know if the jury's analysis--how the aggravating and mitigating circumstances balanced--would have reached the same result even without the invalid factor. Stringer, 503 U.S. at 231-32, 112 S.Ct. 1130. 67 Therefore, whenever an aggravating factor has been invalidated in a weighing state, the sentence must be re-weighed or analyzed for harmless error if the sentence is to be affirmed. Ibid. The question before us, then, is who is permitted to perform such analyses. The state concedes that we may not perform reweighing, but it claims that it is perfectly acceptable for us to engage in harmless-error analysis. We agree that this distinction is warranted. In reweighing, a state court effectively vacates the original sentence and resentences the defendant; this process is hardly appropriate in the course of collateral review by a federal court. In harmless-error analysis, by contrast, a court determines that the original sentence is not constitutionally infirm in the first place, a process that is quite appropriately performed on federal collateral review. Indeed, we would perform a similar analysis if, say, Coe claimed ineffective assistance of counsel based on a failure to raise his vagueness argument on direct appeal. See Smith, 14 F.3d at 976. In that instance, we would have to apply the test of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and determine whether Coe had been prejudiced by his counsel's lapse. The analysis we are performing here is not appreciably different. 68 Coe responds that however sensible the above holding may seem, we are prevented from performing harmless-error analysis by the express language of Supreme Court and Sixth Circuit case law. Although this argument is superficially convincing, we cannot agree. 69 In Stringer, the Supreme Court held that [u]se of a vague or imprecise aggravating factor in the weighing process invalidates the sentence and at the very least requires constitutional harmless-error analysis or reweighing in the state judicial system. Stringer, 503 U.S. at 237, 112 S.Ct. 1130. The Court subsequently reiterated and clarified this principle, ruling that [w]here the death sentence has been infected by a vague or otherwise constitutionally invalid aggravating factor, the state appellate court or some other state sentencer must actually perform a new sentencing calculus, if the sentence is to stand. Richmond v. Lewis, 506 U.S. 40, 49, 113 S.Ct. 528, 121 L.Ed.2d 411 (1992) (emphasis added). Finally, in Houston, we cited Richmond and affirmed the grant of a writ of habeas corpus, because the state court had not recognized the error and thus had not performed a new sentencing calculus. Houston, 50 F.3d at 387 (quotation marks omitted). 70 Significantly, though, we did not address the harmless-error question in Houston. Our holding, therefore, applied only to reweighing. Indeed, the portion of Richmond that we quoted (the same portion set forth in the paragraph above) makes this clear: it is only when the death sentence has been infected by a constitutionally ... invalid aggravating factor that state reweighing is required to preserve the verdict. By definition, though, an error that is harmless does not infect the sentence and does not require reweighing by the state. 71 As a final note, the language of Stringer requiring constitutional harmless-error analysis or reweighing in the state judicial system is consistent with our conclusion. For the reasons discussed above, the phrase state judicial system modifies reweighing only, and not harmless-error analysis. Indeed, the Supreme Court has never held otherwise. Rather, the Court has taught that [f]ederal intrusions into state criminal trials frustrate both the States' sovereign power to punish offenders and their good-faith attempts to honor constitutional rights. Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 635, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993) (quoting Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 128, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982)). Therefore, before overturning final and presumptively correct state convictions or sentences on habeas review, [we] must assess for harmlessness those errors that are eligible for this review in order to assure that the extraordinary relief provided by the writ is granted only to those 'persons whom society has grievously wronged.'  Smith, 14 F.3d at 976 (quoting Brecht, 507 U.S. at 634, 113 S.Ct. 1710 (quoting Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 441, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963))). 72 We turn, therefore, to analyze this error for harmfulness. The question we ask is whether the error had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict. Brecht, 507 U.S. at 623, 113 S.Ct. 1710 (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 776, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946)). 73 The important criterion in a vagueness analysis of an aggravating circumstance is narrowing: A capital sentencing scheme must, in short, provide a meaningful basis for distinguishing the few cases in which [the penalty] is imposed from the many cases in which it is not. Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 427, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980) (quotation marks omitted; alteration in original). 74 Our analysis is relatively simple in this case. Even though the aggravator at issue was phrased as especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or depravity of mind, the jury held more narrowly that the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel and involved torture. As is evident from the facts recited above, there is more than ample evidence to support such a conclusion. 75 This distinction--finding torture but not depravity of mind--is significant. The vagueness problem of the heinous, atrocious, and cruel (HAC) instruction is curable with appropriately narrowing language. We have held, of course, that requiring torture or depravity of mind does not solve the vagueness problem. Requiring only torture, however, does. See Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U.S. 356, 364-65, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988) (implying that torture limitation suffices to cure vagueness of HAC); Walton v. Arizona, 497 U.S. 639, 654, 110 S.Ct. 3047, 111 L.Ed.2d 511 (1990) (confirming implication); Duvall v. Reynolds, 139 F.3d 768, 793 (10th Cir.1998) (holding that torture of the victim or serious physical abuse language in the instruction cures vagueness of HAC); cf. Wade v. Calderon, 29 F.3d 1312, 1319-20 (9th Cir.1994) (holding that intentional torture suffices), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1120, 115 S.Ct. 923, 130 L.Ed.2d 802 (1995). In this case, the jury ignored the problematic depravity factor and limited its finding to the appropriately narrowing torture factor, confirming that finding in a specific, handwritten verdict form. Furthermore, in Maynard and Walton, the narrowing factor was only applied by a reviewing court, not by the jury itself--the fact that we have this evidence from the jury itself confirms our conclusion that the jury's discretion was channeled and narrowed appropriately. The error in this case was harmless, and the district court erred in granting habeas corpus relief on this basis. 2. Unanimity 76 Next at issue is the district court's determination that the jury instructions on unanimity in sentencing were unacceptable. 77 The state first contends that this claim is procedurally barred. When Coe raised this issue in his third state motion for post-conviction relief, the trial court said that he was procedurally barred because he should have raised the issue before, and the court of appeals said that the issue was part of a group of questions that were waived, previously determined on direct appeal, and/or time barred. The state trial court's statement suffices as a clear statement, and the court of appeals's line-blurring mass affirmance does not change that conclusion. See Ylst v. Nunnemaker, 501 U.S. 797, 803, 111 S.Ct. 2590, 115 L.Ed.2d 706 (1991) ([W]here, as here, the last reasoned opinion on the claim explicitly imposes a procedural default, we will presume that a later decision rejecting the claim did not silently disregard that bar and consider the merits.). 78 As with the heinous instruction discussed above, however, Coe did raise this issue in his direct appeal, apparently by incorporating it from his motion for a new trial. Also as mentioned above, the state supreme court held that the death-sentence statute was not constitutionally infirm. It is not clear if this holding applies to the unanimity provisions, however, and the cases cited by the state supreme court on direct appeal do not cover unanimity. See State v. Austin, 618 S.W.2d 738, 742 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1128, 102 S.Ct. 980, 71 L.Ed.2d 116 (1981); State v. Dicks, 615 S.W.2d 126 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 933, 102 S.Ct. 431, 70 L.Ed.2d 240 (1981). The district court responded to this by citing Tennessee Code § 39-2-205 and State v. Martin, 702 S.W.2d 560, 564 (Tenn.1985) for the notion that, in capital cases, the state supreme court has to review significant errors, whether or not they were raised by the defendant. 79 As phrased by the district court, this proposition is too broad, as it would eliminate the entire doctrine of procedural bar in Tennessee in capital cases. See Kornahrens v. Evatt, 66 F.3d 1350, 1362-63 (4th Cir.1995) (accepting similar reasoning in South Carolina case), cert. denied sub nom. Kornahrens v. Moore, 517 U.S. 1171, 116 S.Ct. 1575, 134 L.Ed.2d 673 (1996). Martin, though, cited § 39-2-205 and reviewed a question that had been discussed but not preserved for review at trial. Martin, 702 S.W.2d at 564. A fortiori, because the issue in this case was not only discussed but formally contested, Martin applies to eliminate the procedural bar problem for Coe. The state court's suggestion of waiver in dismissing Coe's third petition for post-conviction review was only a successive-petition type of waiver; it did not address the issue of whether the question had been raised on direct appeal. Even if it had, furthermore, the third petition is currently pending before the state supreme court. 80 Therefore, we find that this claim is not procedurally barred, and so we turn to the merits. The jury was told: 81 If you unanimously determine that at least one statutory aggravating circumstance or ... circumstances have been proved by the State, beyond a reasonable doubt, and said circumstance or circumstances are not outweighed by any mitigating circumstances, the sentence shall be death. The Jury shall state in writing the statutory aggravating circumstance or ... circumstances so found, and signify in writing that there were no mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to outweigh the [aggravating circumstances]. 82 The jury was then given the form its verdict should take: 83 (1) We, the Jury, unanimously find the following listed statutory aggravating circumstance or circumstances; 84 . . . . . 85 (2) We, the Jury, unanimously find that there are no mitigating circumstances sufficiently substantial to outweigh the [aggravating circumstances] so listed above. 86 (3) Therefore, we, the Jury, unanimously find that the punishment shall be death. 87 The alternate result was then provided for and explained: 88 If you unanimously determine that no statutory aggravating circumstance has been proved by the State beyond a reasonable doubt; or if the Jury unanimously determine that [aggravating circumstances] have been proved by the State beyond a reasonable doubt; but that said [aggravating circumstances] are outweighed by one or more mitigating circumstances, the sentence shall be life imprisonment. 89 For both the death verdict and the life imprisonment verdict, the jury was told that its verdict must be unanimous. 90 The district court, relying on two of its own precedents, concluded that these instructions were unacceptable because there was a reasonable probability that the jurors believed that they could consider only those mitigating circumstances that they unanimously agreed were present. See McKoy v. North Carolina, 494 U.S. 433, 439-41, 444 & n. 8, 110 S.Ct. 1227, 108 L.Ed.2d 369 (1990); Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 373-75, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988) (declaring such a requirement unconstitutional). The district court also held that the instructions improperly failed to inform the jury of the consequence of a non-unanimous verdict (i.e., a life sentence). 91 We first note that this same issue was raised in a recent case, Austin v. Bell, 938 F.Supp. 1308 (M.D.Tenn.1996), in which the district court reached the same conclusion as it did in this case. See id. at 1320-21. We affirmed Austin on ineffective assistance grounds, and so specifically did not reach the unanimity question, but we noted that although we were not reaching the issue, we had serious concerns about the instruction. Austin v. Bell, 126 F.3d 843, 849 (6th Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1547, 140 L.Ed.2d 695 (1998). We cited, among other cases, Mills v. Maryland, 486 U.S. 367, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988). 92 In Mills, a similar issue was raised; the Supreme Court ruled that the proper inquiry is whether a reasonable jury might have interpreted the instructions in a way that is constitutionally impermissible. Mills, 486 U.S. at 375-76, 108 S.Ct. 1860. The relevant portion of the form in Mills read as follows: Based upon the evidence we unanimously find that each of the following mitigating circumstances which is marked 'yes' has been proven to exist by a preponderance of the evidence and each mitigating circumstance marked 'no' has not been proven by a preponderance of the evidence. Mills, 486 U.S. at 387, 108 S.Ct. 1860 (emphasis omitted). The Supreme Court held this to be impermissible. Id. at 377-84, 108 S.Ct. 1860. 1 93 In Kordenbrock v. Scroggy, 919 F.2d 1091, 1108-10, 1120-21 (6th Cir.1990) (en banc), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 970, 111 S.Ct. 1608, 113 L.Ed.2d 669 (1991), the trial court had given a unanimity instruction with regard to aggravating factors, but not with regard to mitigating ones. We held that the only reasonable reading of the instruction was that, by omission, no unanimity was required as to mitigating factors. Kordenbrock, 919 F.2d at 1121. 2 94 We find that the instructions challenged by Coe do not violate Mills. Their language requires unanimity as to the results of the weighing, but this is a far different matter than requiring unanimity as to the presence of a mitigating factor. Nothing in this language could reasonably be taken to require unanimity as to the presence of a mitigating factor. The instructions say clearly and correctly that in order to obtain a unanimous verdict, each juror must conclude that the mitigators do not outweigh the aggravators. 95 The language certainly is not as directly problematic as that in cases that have followed Mills. See, e.g., McKoy, 494 U.S. at 436, 110 S.Ct. 1227 (Do you unanimously find from the evidence the existence of one or more of the following mitigating circumstances?); United States ex rel. Kubat v. Thieret, 679 F.Supp. 788, 813 (N.D.Ill.1988) (If ... you unanimously conclude that there is a sufficiently mitigating factor or factors to preclude imposition of the death sentence, you should sign the form which so indicates.), aff'd, 867 F.2d 351 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 874, 110 S.Ct. 206, 107 L.Ed.2d 159 (1989). Those cases did not require any sort of inferential leap to conclude that the jury had to be unanimous before it could even consider a particular mitigating factor; the instruction specifically so stated. In Coe's case, by contrast, it is fairly clear that, as with the first challenged instruction, the unanimity refers to the weighing process and not to the finding of a mitigating factor. Coe argues that the unanimity instruction in the weighing process is improper too, an issue that is addressed below. 96 We also note that the problematic language did not appear in the section of the instructions on finding mitigating factors. Rather, it appeared in the section on weighing. By contrast, the instructions that precede the section on finding mitigating factors says nothing at all about unanimity. Rather, they say that the jury shall consider ... any mitigating circumstance[ ]. This is in direct contradistinction to the immediately previous section on aggravating circumstances, where the jury is told that no death penalty shall be imposed by a Jury but upon an [sic] unanimous finding of the existence of one or more of the statutory aggravating circumstances.... The contrast between the unanimity required for finding ... one or more aggravators and the silence accompanying the instructions on consider[ing] any mitigators is precisely what we found dispositive in Kordenbrock. The instructions, therefore, are not improper. 97 The dissent emphasizes the use of the words as heretofore indicated in the instructions on considering mitigation, and argues that those words can easily be understood by the jury to refer to the earlier unanimity discussion on finding aggravating circumstances. However, in context, that construction is very unlikely. The instructions condensed to 12 lines at page 63 of the dissent actually occupy over two pages in the record. There is a whole page omitted at the ellipsis in the block quotation before the crucial language as heretofore indicated. Also omitted is the key language explaining that it is the statute that provides for the jury to consider as heretofore indicated all mitigating factors. The words as heretofore indicated are taken directly from § 39-2404(j) of the Tennessee Code, and obviously refer to the whole process of consideration that has just been explained, including burden of proof, signing of the verdict form, weighing of mitigating factors against aggravating factors, etc. It is not a plausible construction that those words import a process of unanimity that was required only and specifically of the finding of aggravating circumstances. 98 Coe naturally emphasizes the less clear-cut weighing language, and valiantly attempts to bring the language within the prohibition of Mills. Coe has noted that an instruction that gets the law right does not necessarily save another, contradictory instruction, since it is impossible to know which of the two contradictory propositions the jury relied upon. See Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307, 322, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985). In this case, however, the two passages are not contradictory. One is clear and the other is less clear, to be sure, but they are not incompatible. In Francis, the Court considered whether taken as a whole [the correct language] might have explained the [law] with sufficient clarity that any ambiguity in the [challenged language] could not have been [misconstrued] by a reasonable juror.... Id. at 318-19, 105 S.Ct. 1965. The Supreme Court reminded us, in other words, that we should read the whole of the instructions, and should not isolate and parse text until we find something wrong with it. In Francis, the Court found that the context did not cure the potential for misunderstanding, but in this case we find that it does, to the extent that there is any potential for misunderstanding to begin with. 99 The next aspect of the unanimity instructions that Coe successfully challenged in the district court is that the jurors were not told that Coe would receive a life sentence if they failed to reach a unanimous sentence. See TENN.CODE. ANN. § 39-2404 (1982) (mandating life sentence if jury is unable to achieve unanimity, but precluding court from informing the jury of this); State v. Simon, 635 S.W.2d 498, 505 (Tenn.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1055, 103 S.Ct. 473, 74 L.Ed.2d 621 (1982). Coe argues that by requiring unanimity for either life or death, a holdout juror preferring a life sentence might vote for death because he thought that a unanimous verdict was required in every case. Therefore, he says, the jury should have been informed of the consequences of a failure by it to achieve unanimity. 100 We are unpersuaded by this argument. 3 Two circuits have considered and rejected similar arguments regarding similar proceedings and similar state laws. See United States v. Chandler, 996 F.2d 1073, 1089 (11th Cir.1993); Barfield v. Harris, 540 F.Supp. 451, 472 (E.D.N.C.1982), aff'd, 719 F.2d 58 (4th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1210, 104 S.Ct. 2401, 81 L.Ed.2d 357 (1984). Coe cites Supreme Court precedent for his proposition, but that precedent is inapt. He cites Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980), for the proposition that a jury must be aware of its options if the sentence is to be seen as reliable, but Beck held only that a jury should be informed of its ability to convict of applicable lesser-included offenses, and Coe's jury was so instructed. Beck does not consider the necessity of informing a jury of the consequences of its inability to reach a unanimous verdict. 101 Coe also cites Romano v. Oklahoma, 512 U.S. 1, 8-9, 114 S.Ct. 2004, 129 L.Ed.2d 1 (1994), which cited Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 336, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985), for the proposition that the jury must not be misled regarding the role it plays in the sentencing decision. True enough. But it does not mislead the jury to impress upon it the importance of unanimity. Romano dealt with the admission of potentially misleading evidence (a previous death sentence imposed on the same defendant), but the Court held that this did not mislead the jury as to its role, or minimize its sense of responsibility. Romano, 512 U.S. at 9, 114 S.Ct. 2004. 102 These necessary indicia are not present in this case either. The jury's role was to deliberate and to attempt to reach a unanimous verdict. The fact that there was a statutorily defined default rule in case the jury could not agree does not change this fact. Indeed, it does not necessarily mislead a jury regarding its role to avoid disclosing what will happen if the jury fails to achieve unanimity. If Coe were correct here, the Supreme Court surely would not have decided Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 108 S.Ct. 546, 98 L.Ed.2d 568 (1988), the way it did. In that case, the Court approved use of an Allen charge in a capital case. Id. at 237-38, 108 S.Ct. 546. It cited approvingly the Court's statement in Allen that [t]he very object of the jury system is to secure unanimity by a comparison of views, and by arguments among the jurors themselves. Id. at 237, 108 S.Ct. 546 (quoting Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492, 501, 17 S.Ct. 154, 41 L.Ed. 528 (1896)). 103 The jury was given incomplete information, but not misleading information. Coe's scenario--a minority juror who interprets the unanimity requirement as directing him to give in to the majority--is simply not reasonable. Unanimity means the opposite: that the majority does not win simply because it is a majority. The jury was told precisely this when instructed regarding unanimity at the guilt phase; the jury was instructed to not surrender your honest conviction ... for the mere purpose of returning a verdict. The state law did not unconstitutionally deceive the jury and infect the verdict in this case with unreliability, and the district court erred in holding otherwise.