Court Opinion

ID: 9842051
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-22 20:12:30.64446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:27.652630
License: Public Domain

*1015Justice Marshall,
with whom Justice Brennan joins, and with whom Justice Blackmun joins as to Parts II, III, IV, and V, dissenting.
Even if I accepted the prevailing view that the death penalty may constitutionally be imposed under certain circumstances, I could not agree that a State may tip the balance in favor of death by informing the jury that the defendant may eventually be released if he is not executed. In my view, the Briggs Instruction is unconstitutional for three reasons. It is misleading. It invites speculation and guesswork. And it injects into the capital sentencing process a factor that bears no relation to the nature of the offense or the character of the offender.
I
I continue to adhere to my view that the death penalty is in all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment forbidden by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. See Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 231 (1976) (Marshall, J., dissenting); Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238, 358-369 (1972) (Marshall, J., concurring). I would vacate the death sentence on this basis alone. However, even if I could accept the prevailing view that the death penalty may constitutionally be imposed under certain circumstances, I would vacate the death sentence in this case.
H — l
Apart from the permissibility of ever instructing a jury to consider the possibility of commutation, the Briggs Instruction is unconstitutional because it misleads the jury about the scope of the Governor’s clemency power. By upholding that instruction, the majority authorizes “state-sanctioned fraud and deceit in the most serious of all state actions: the taking of a human life.” 30 Cal. 3d 553, 597, n. 21, 639 P. 2d 908, 933, n. 21 (1982). See ibid, (if the instruction were “part of a contractual negotiation, it would arguably constitute a tortious deceit and a fraudulent misrepresentation”).
*1016The Briggs Instruction may well mislead the jury into believing that it can eliminate any possibility of commutation by imposing the death sentence. It indicates that the Governor can commute a life sentence without possibility of parole, but not that the Governor can also commute a death sentence. The instruction thus erroneously suggests to the jury that a death sentence will assure the defendant’s permanent removal from society whereas the alternative sentence will not. See People v. Haskett, 30 Cal. 3d 841, 861, 640 P. 2d 776, 789 (1982).
Presented with this choice, a jury may impose the death sentence to prevent the Governor from exercising his power to commute a life sentence without possibility of parole.1 See Gardner v. Florida, 430 U. S. 349, 359 (1977) (opinion of Stevens, J.) (“we must assume that in some cases [the instruction] will be decisive”). Yet such a sentencing decision would be based on a grotesque mistake, for the Governor also has the power to commute a death sentence. The possibility of this mistake is deliberately injected into the sentencing process by the Briggs Instruction. In my view, the Constitution simply does not permit a State to “stac[k] the deck” against a capital defendant in this manner. Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510, 523 (1968). See Adams v. Texas, 448 U. S. 38, 43-44 (1980).
The majority assumes that the issue is whether a “balanced” instruction would cure the defect. Ante, at 1011. It then argues that an instruction about the Governor’s power to commute a death sentence would be seriously prejudicial to the defendant and could not in any event have been *1017given since it is forbidden by state law. Ante, at 1011-1012.2 This analysis is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue. The question is not whether a balanced instruction would be more or less advantageous to defendants, but whether the Briggs Instruction is misleading and therefore unconstitutional.
If the Briggs Instruction is indeed misleading, and the majority never denies that it may lead jurors to impose a death sentence because they wrongly assume that such a sentence will ensure that the defendant will not be released, it can hardly be defended on the ground that a balanced instruction would be more prejudicial.3 If, as the majority points out, there are compelling reasons for not informing the jury as to the Governor’s power to commute death sentences, the solu-
*1018tion is not to permit a misleading instruction, but to prohibit altogether any instruction concerning commutation. This point seems to have eluded the majority. For some inexplicable reason it concludes that, since a balanced instruction is unavailable, the State is free to mislead the jury about the Governor’s clemency power. One searches the majority opinion in vain for some explanation of how the State’s inability to give a complete statement of the Governor’s commutation powers can possibly justify giving an incomplete statement that is misleading.
I had thought it was common ground that the capital sentencing process must be as reliable, as rational, and as free of mistakes as is humanly possible. Yet the Court upholds the Briggs Instruction without ever disputing its substantial potential to mislead. The Court thus authorizes the State to “cros[s] the line of neutrality” and encourage death sentences by deceiving the jury. Witherspoon, supra, at 520.
HH HH HH
The Briggs Instruction should be struck down not only because it is misleading, but also because it invites the imposition of the death penalty on the basis of mere speculation. As the majority concedes, ante, at 998, n. 8, the Briggs Instruction invites the jury to consider the possibility that if it does not sentence the defendant to death, he may be released through commutation and subsequent parole. The instruction thus invites the jury to speculate about the possibility of release and to decide whether it wishes to foreclose that possibility by imposing a death sentence. Respondent contends that a State may not invite a jury to impose a death sentence on the basis of its ad hoc speculation about the likelihood of a release.
Instead of directly confronting this contention, the majority denies that the principal effect of the Briggs Instruction is to invite the jury to predict the actions of some future Governor and parole board. It instead characterizes the Briggs Instruction as a mere proxy for a determination of future *1019dangerousness. Ante, at 1003, 1005-1006. It then reasons that because the Texas scheme upheld in Jurek v. Texas, 428 U. S. 262 (1976), requires the jury to determine a defendant’s future dangerousness, Jurek is “controlling,” ante, at 1002, and the Briggs Instruction is therefore constitutional.
The Briggs Instruction simply cannot be reduced to the functional equivalent of the scheme upheld in Jurek. It neither requires nor even suggests that a jury should make a finding concerning the defendant’s future dangerousness, and the jury is provided with no evidence on which to base any such finding.4 More importantly, whatever else the Briggs Instruction might incidentally lead juries to consider, the one thing it expressly invites them to do is to impose the death penalty on the basis of their ad hoc speculations as to the likelihood of commutation.
Individual jury predictions of the possibility of commutation and parole represent no more than “sheer speculation.” Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420, 429 (1980) (plurality opinion). A jury simply has no basis for assessing the likelihood *1020that a particular defendant will eventually be released if he is not sentenced to death. To invite the jury to indulge in such speculation is to ask it to foretell numerous imponderables: the policies that may be adopted by unnamed future Governors and parole officials, any change in the defendant’s character, as well as any other factors that might be deemed relevant to the commutation and parole decisions. Yet these are questions that “no human mind can answer . . . because they rest on future events which are unpredictable.” People v. Morse, 60 Cal. 2d 631, 643, 388 P. 2d 33, 40 (1964). This is inevitable in part because the commutation decision itself is standardless.
The predictive inquiry becomes even more hazardous if, as the majority suggests, the jury also considers whether the defendant would pose a threat to society if and when he is released. A jury, in short, would have to assess not only the likelihood that the defendant will be released, but also the likelihood that his release will be a mistake. I fail to see how any jury can be expected to forecast the future character of a particular defendant and the risk that some state authority, armed with contemporaneous information about his character whose contents the jury can only guess at, will misjudge his character and erroneously release him.
Sentencing decisions based on such groundless predictions are clearly arbitrary and capricious. As the Tennessee Supreme Court put it, a death sentence imposed on this basis is the product of “mere guesswork.”6 If the predictions of particular juries reflect little more than wild speculation, then differences among juries in their predictions are no less the product of caprice and not reason. Yet the Briggs Instruc*1021tion creates the possibility that one defendant may be sentenced to die while another is permitted to live because the first jury perceived a greater likelihood of commutation and parole. This hardly constitutes a meaningful, principled basis for distinguishing a case in which the death penalty is imposed from one in which it is not. Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S., at 188, quoting Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S., at 313 (White, J., concurring). See also Godfrey v. Georgia, supra, at 433; Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586, 601 (1978) (plurality opinion).
The imposition of death sentences on the basis of sheer speculation about unknowables can only be arbitrary and capricious. Our prior cases have stressed the heightened need for reliability and rationality in the determination of whether an individual should be sentenced to death. Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U. S. 280, 305 (1976) (plurality opinion); Lockett v. Ohio, supra, at 604; Gardner v. Florida, 430 U. S., at 359. The Briggs Instruction injects a level of unreliability, uncertainty, and arbitrariness “that cannot be tolerated in a capital case.” Beck v. Alabama, 447 U. S. 625, 643 (1980).
IV
Even if the Briggs Instruction did not mislead the jury and call for guesswork, it would be unconstitutional for the independent reason that it introduces an impermissible factor into the capital sentencing process.
The instruction invites juries to impose the death sentence to eliminate the possibility of eventual release through commutation and parole. Yet that possibility bears no relation to the defendant’s character or the nature of the crime, or to any generally accepted justification for the death penalty. Since any factor considered by the jury may be decisive in its decision to sentence the defendant to death, Gardner v. Florida, supra, at 359 (opinion of STEVENS, J.), the jury clearly should not be permitted to consider just any factor. Rather, *1022it should only be permitted to consider factors which can provide a principled basis for imposing a death sentence rather than a life sentence. See Zant v. Stephens, 462 U. S. 862, 885 (1983) (noting that jury may not consider race, religion, or political affiliation, and suggesting that factors which are truly mitigating cannot be the basis for imposing a death sentence).
In my view, the Constitution forbids the jury to consider any factor which bears no relation to the defendant’s character or the nature of his crime, or which is unrelated to any penological objective that can justify imposition of the death penalty. Our cases establish that a capital sentencing proceeding should focus on the nature of the criminal act and the character of the offender. “[I]n order to minimize the risk that the death penalty would be imposed on a capriciously selected group of offenders, the decision to impose it [must] be guided by standards so that the sentencing authority would focus on the particularized circumstances of the crime and the defendant.” Gregg v. Georgia, supra, at 199 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). The Court has thus stressed that the appropriateness of the death penalty should depend on “relevant facets of the character and record of the individual offender.” Woodson v. North Carolina, supra, at 304. Considerations such as the extent of premeditation, the nature of the crime, and any prior criminal activity have been considered relevant to the determination of the appropriate sentence. The requirement that the jury focus on factors such as these is designed to ensure that the punishment will be “tailored to [the defendant’s] personal responsibility and moral guilt.” Enmund v. Florida, 458 U. S. 782, 801 (1982) (emphasis added).
In sharp contrast, the mere possibility of a commutation “is wholly and utterly foreign to”6 the defendant’s guilt and “not even remotely related to”7 his blameworthiness. That pos*1023sibility bears absolutely no relation to the nature of the offense or the character of the individual. Whether a defendant’s crime warrants the death penalty should not turn on “a speculative possibility that may or may not occur.”8
The possibility of commutation has no relationship to the state purposes that this Court has said can justify the death penalty. Capital punishment simply cannot be justified as necessary to keep criminals off the streets. Whatever might be said concerning retribution and deterrence as justifications for capital punishment, it cannot be seriously defended as necessary to insulate the public from persons likely to commit crimes in the future. Life imprisonment and, if necessary, solitary confinement would fully accomplish the aim of incapacitation. See Gregg v. Georgia, supra, at 236, n. 14 (Marshall, J., dissenting); Furman v. Georgia, supra, at 355-359 (Marshall, J., concurring). That the death penalty cannot be justified by considerations of incapacitation was implicitly acknowledged in Gregg, where the joint opinion of Justices Stewart, Powell, and Stevens relied entirely on retribution and deterrence as possible justifications for the death penalty, 428 U. S., at 183, and mentioned incapacitation only in passing as “[ajnother purpose that has been discussed.” Id., at 183, n. 28.9
This conclusion is in no way altered by California’s decision to establish an alternative sentence to death that does not *1024guarantee permanent confinement. If a death sentence is inappropriate, a State cannot justify its imposition on the ground that the alternative it has provided, which in this case leaves open the possibility of future release, may be considered inadequate by the jury. An analogy may be usefully drawn to this Court’s decision in Beck v. Alabama, 447 U. S. 625 (1980). In Beck we struck down an instruction which created a risk that a defendant would be convicted of a crime of which he was not guilty. We necessarily rejected any suggestion that such an instruction could be justified by the fact that the alternative it presented was no conviction at all. Presenting the jury in a capital case with the choice between an unwarranted conviction and an acquittal is impermissible because it may induce the jury to convict simply to ensure that the defendant receives some punishment. Such a choice “would seem inevitably to enhance the risk of an unwarranted conviction.” Id., at 637. Similarly, a defendant may not be sentenced to death simply because the alternative the State has adopted does not ensure incapacitation. The State may not use the unavailability of permanent imprisonment to induce juries to sentence to death defendants whose appropriate punishment is something less severe. “That death should be inflicted when a life sentence is appropriate is an abhorrent thought.” State v. White, 27 N. J. 158, 178, 142 A. 2d 65, 76 (1958).
Finally, the Briggs Instruction impermissibly invites jurors to impose death sentences on the basis of their desire to foreclose a duly authorized review of their judgment of conviction. Although the power to grant clemency is not restricted by standards, it is reasonable to assume that it will at least be exercised when the Governor concludes that “the criminal justice system has unjustly convicted a defendant.” Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U. S. 325, 350 (1976) (White, J., joined by Burger, C. J., and Blackmun and Rehnquist, JJ., dissenting). Yet the very jury whose judgment of conviction would be the subject of any future application for *1025clemency is led to believe that it may impose the death sentence to preclude such an application.10 I am aware of no authority, and the majority cites none, for the proposition that a judicial body may base any decision, no less one concerning the life or death of an individual, on a desire to immunize its own actions from duly authorized reexamination.11
V
The conclusion that juries should not be permitted to consider commutation and parole in deciding the appropriate sentence is shared by nearly every jurisdiction which has considered the question. In prior decisions this Court has consistently sought “guidance . . . from the objective evidence of the country’s present judgment” in determining the constitutionality of particular capital sentencing schemes. Coker v. Georgia, 433 U. S. 584, 593 (1977). See, e. g., Solem v. Helm, ante, at 290-292; Enmund, 458 U. S., at 812-816 (O’Connor, J., dissenting); Beck v. Alabama, supra, at 637; Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S., at 179-182; Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U. S., at 294-299. With *1026scarcely a word of explanation, today’s decision dismisses the overwhelming weight of authority establishing that a jury may not be informed of the possibility that a defendant may be released if he is not sentenced to death.
The propriety of allowing a sentencing jury to consider the power of a Governor to commute a sentence or of a parole board to grant parole has been considered in 28 jurisdictions in addition to California.12 Of those jurisdictions, 25 have concluded, as did the California Supreme Court in this case, that the jury should not consider the possibility of pardon, parole, or commutation.13 In only three jurisdictions has it *1027been deemed proper to allow a jury to consider the possibility that a sentence can be reduced by commutation or parole, and two of those cases14 were decided before Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 (1972). Only one post -Furman decision has approved of jury consideration of parole or commutation,15 and that decision concerned a capital sentencing scheme in which the jury merely recommends the sentence. Moreover, not only has the view embraced by the majority been almost uniformly rejected, but in those States which formerly permitted jury consideration of parole and commutation the trend has been to renounce the prior decisions.16
I would have thought that this impressive consensus would “weigh heavily in the balance” in determining the constitutionality of the Briggs Instruction. Enmund v. Florida, supra, at 797. The majority breezily dismisses that consensus with the terse statement that “States are free to provide *1028greater protections . . . than the Federal Constitution requires.” Ante, at 1014. This observation hardly suffices as an explanation, however, since the same thing could have been said in Enmund, Coker, Beck, and Woodson, yet in each of those decisions the Court looked to prevailing standards for guidance.
The majority’s approach is inconsistent with the compelling reasons for according “due regard,” Coker v. Georgia, 433 U. S., at 592, to the contemporary judgments of other jurisdictions. This Court has stressed that the “[Eighth] Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,” Trop v. Dulles, 356 U. S. 86, 101 (1958) (plurality opinion), and that “[cjentral to the application of the Amendment is a determination of contemporary standards regarding the infliction of punishment.” Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U. S., at 288 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.). Moreover, unless this Court’s judgment is “informed by objective factors to the maximum possible extent,” its decisions may reflect “merely the subjective views of individual Justices.” Coker, supra, at 592 (plurality opinion).
< HH
Whatever interest a State may have in imposing the death penalty, there is no justification for a misleading instruction obviously calculated to increase the likelihood of a death sentence by inviting the jury to speculate about the possibility that the defendant will eventually be released if he is not executed. I would vacate respondent’s death sentence.

 State courts have recognized that juries will compensate for the possibility of future clemency by imposing harsher sentences. See, e. g., Farris v. State, 535 S. W. 2d 608, 614 (Tenn. 1976); Smith v. State, 317 A. 2d 20, 25-26 (Del. 1974); State v. White, 27 N. J. 158, 177-178, 142 A. 2d 65, 76 (1958).

 In a footnote the majority notes that the respondent did not request a jury charge regarding the Governor’s power to commute a death sentence. Ante, at 1011, n. 25. It makes nothing of this fact, however, for reasons that are plain: the California Supreme Court did not find that respondent had waived any objection to the misleading nature of the Briggs Instruction, and, in any event, such an instruction was forbidden by State law.

 For some of the reasons articulated by the majority, ante, at 1011, the Constitution would presumably forbid instructing a jury in a capital sentencing proceeding to consider the Governor’s powers to commute a death sentence. See generally Farris v. State, supra, at 614 (noting that such an instruction “tends to breed irresponsibility on the part of jurors premised upon the proposition that corrective action can be taken by others at a later date”); State v. Jones, 296 N. C. 495, 501, 251 S. E. 2d 425, 429 (1979) (jury’s sense of responsibility will be reduced by reliance on executive review). The majority suggests that a defendant is free to correct the misleading impression created by the Briggs Instruction by informing jurors about the Governor’s power to commute death sentences. Ante, at 1004-1005, n. 19. This suggestion is anomalous indeed, since the majority itself has concluded that jurors so informed will be inclined “to approach their sentencing decision with less appreciation for the gravity of their choice and for the moral responsibility reposed in them as sentencers.” Ante, at 1011. I cannot agree that a State may force a defendant to choose between being sentenced by a jury which is misinformed and one which is unlikely to view its task with the requisite sense of responsibility.

 The Briggs Instruction merely invites the jury to speculate about the likelihood of future release; it says nothing about whether there is a likelihood of future criminal activity in the event of such release. A jury may decide to impose the death penalty to prevent a defendant’s release simply because it has concluded that the defendant does not “deserve” to reenter society, and not because of any concern about his dangerousness. Jurek says nothing about the permissibility of imposing a death sentence on this basis.
In addition, although a jury presented with the Briggs Instruction might choose to take into account future dangerousness, this in no way makes the instruction the functional equivalent of the Texas scheme. In upholding the Texas scheme this Court stressed that the Texas law assured that “all possible relevant information” is presented to the jury. 428 U. S., at 276. Under the Briggs Instruction not only is the jury not required to make any finding concerning the defendant’s future dangerousness, but also there is no requirement that any evidence of future dangerousness be introduced. Indeed, with rare exceptions such evidence is inadmissible under California law. See People v. Murtishaw, 29 Cal. 3d 733, 767-775, 631 P. 2d 446, 468-471 (1981), cert. denied, 455 U. S. 922 (1982).

 Farris v. State, 535 S. W. 2d, at 613-614, quoting Graham v. State, 304 S. W. 2d 622, 624 (1957). Accord, State v. Leland, 190 Ore. 598, 623, 227 P. 2d 785, 796 (1951) (“purely speculative”); Jones v. Commonwealth, 194 Va. 273, 279, 72 S. E. 2d 693, 697 (1952) (results in punishment based on “speculative elements”); State v. Lindsey, 404 So. 2d 466, 487 (La. 1981) (“unquantiñable factor”).

 Farris v. State, supra, at 614.

 State v. Lindsey, supra, at 486.

 People v. Walker, 91 Ill. 2d 502, 515, 440 N. E. 2d 83, 89 (1982).

 Jurek v. Texas, 428 U. S. 262 (1976), does not establish that the goal of incapacitation may justify the death penalty. This question was not addressed in Jurek. The petitioner in Jurek did not attack the Texas capital sentencing scheme on this ground, but rather contended that the scheme would not prevent the arbitrary and capricious infliction of the death penalty. The Court rejected this attack on the procedures prescribed by the Texas scheme, id., at 268-276 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); id., at 278-279 (White, J., joined by Burger, C. J., and Rehnquist, J., concurring in judgment), but did not decide the substantive question of whether a prediction of future dangerousness is a proper criterion for determining whether a defendant is to live or die.

 It matters not that the jury in California cannot actually eliminate the possibility of commutation because a death sentence may be commuted as well. The Briggs Instruction omits any mention of this fact, and, as the majority acknowledges, ante, at 1011-1012, there exist compelling reasons why a defendant would not wish to and should not be forced to bring it to the jury’s attention. See n. 3, supra.

 State courts have consistently held that juries may not be permitted to circumvent the actions of other branches of government through the preemptive imposition of the death penalty. See, e. g., Murray v. State, 359 So. 2d 1178 (Ala. Crim. App. 1978) (consideration of commutation subverts jury’s properly assigned role); Andrews v. State, 251 Ark. 279, 290, 472 S. W. 2d 86, 92 (1971) (consideration of commutation takes jury “far afield from its proper purpose and prerogative”); Broyles v. Commonwealth, 267 S. W. 2d 73, 76 (Ky. 1954) (when jury anticipates acts of executive branch it “circumvent[s] . . . and infringes upon [their] prerogatives”); State v. Lindsey, 404 So. 2d, at 486-487 (jury would improperly pre-empt the Governor’s duly authorized power); Jones v. Commonwealth, 194 Va. 273, 279, 72 S. E. 2d 693, 697 (1952).

 California is the only State which has a statute requiring that the jury be instructed to consider the possibility of commutation. In other jurisdictions, the issue has generally arisen either because the jury inquired about parole or commutation or because the defendant contended that the prosecution improperly argued the issue to the jury.

 Most of these decisions concern jury sentencing in capital cases, although some concern noncapital cases. While some decisions have found the error harmless, in none of these cases did a court find a jury instruction concerning parole or commutation to be harmless. See, e. g., Grady v. State, 391 So. 2d 1095 (Ala. Crim. App. 1980) (noncapital); Westbrook v. State, 265 Ark. 736, 580 S. W. 2d 702 (1979); Jones v. State, 146 Colo. 40, 360 P. 2d 686 (1961); Smith v. State, 317 A. 2d 20 (Del. 1974); Paramore v. State, 229 So. 2d 855 (Fla. 1969) (prosecutor argument improper but not reversible error), vacated on other grounds, 408 U. S. 935 (1972); Gilreath v. State, 247 Ga. 814, 279 S. E. 2d 650 (1981), cert. denied, 456 U. S. 984 (1982); People v. Szabo, 94 Ill. 2d 327, 447 N. E. 2d 193 (1983); Farmer v. Commonwealth, 450 S. W. 2d 494 (Ky. 1970); State v. Brown, 414 So. 2d 689 (La. 1982); Poole v. State, 295 Md. 167, 453 A. 2d 1218 (1983); State v. Thomas, 625 S. W. 2d 115 (Mo. 1981); Grandsinger v. State, 161 Neb. 419, 73 N. W. 2d 632 (1955) (prosecutorial argument improper but not reversible error), cert. denied, 352 U. S. 880 (1956); Summers v. State, 86 Nev. 210, 213, 467 P. 2d 98, 100 (1970) (reaffirming Serrano v. State, 86 Nev. 676, 447 P. 2d 497 (1968), which instructed jury to assume that life without parole means exactly that); State v. Conklin, 54 N. J. 540, 258 A. 2d 1 (1969); State v. Jones, 296 N. C. 495, 251 S. E. 2d 425 (1979); McKee v. State, 576 P. 2d 302 (Okla. Crim. App. 1978) (noncapital); State v. Leland, 190 Ore. 598, 227 P. 2d 785 (1951), aff’d, 343 U. S. 790 (1952); Commonwealth v. Aljoe, 420 Pa. 198, 216 A. 2d 50 (1966); State v. Goolsby, 275 S. C. 110, 268 S. E. 2d 31, cert. denied, 449 U. S. 1037 (1980); Farris v. *1027State, 535 S. W. 2d 608 (Tenn. 1976) (noncapital); Clanton v. State, 528 S. W. 2d 250 (Tex. Crim. App. 1975); Clanton v. Commonwealth, 223 Va. 41, 286 S. E. 2d 172 (1982); State v. Todd, 78 Wash. 2d 362, 474 P. 2d 542 (1970); State v. Lindsey, 160 W. Va. 284, 233 S. E. 2d 734 (1977) (non-capital); State v. Carroll, 52 Wyo. 29, 69 P. 2d 542 (1937). Contrary to the majority’s suggestion, ante, at 1013-1014, n. 30, these decisions rest on much broader grounds than the interpretation of particular state statutes.

 Massa v. State, 37 Ohio App. 532, 538-539, 175 N. E. 219, 221-222 (1930); State v. Jackson, 100 Ariz. 91, 412 P. 2d 36 (1966).

 Brewer v. State, 275 Ind. 338, 417 N. E. 2d 889 (1981).

 In 1955, for instance, the Georgia Legislature overruled prior decisions to the contrary by enacting a statute forbidding any jury argument concerning commutation or parole. Ga. Code Ann. § 27-2206 (1972). See Strickland v. State, 209 Ga. 65, 70 S. E. 2d 710 (1952) (cases discussed therein). In 1958 the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed a line of decisions which had approved of jury consideration of commutation and parole. State v. White, 27 N. J. 158, 142 A. 2d 65 (1958). And in 1976 the Tennessee Supreme Court invalidated a statute that required juries to be instructed about parole in felony cases. Farris v. State, supra. See also Andrews v. State, 251 Ark. 279, 472 S. W. 2d 86 (1971) (disapproving earlier decisions permitting judge, when asked by jurors, to inform them of possibility of reduction of sentence).