Court Opinion

ID: 9432591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:35:47.649483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:34.785854
License: Public Domain

Justice Scalia,
in dissent, insists that Illinois is entitled to try a death penalty case with 1 or even 12 jurors who upon inquiry announce that they would automatically vote to impose the death penalty if the defendant is found guilty of a capital offense, no matter what the so-called mitigating factors, whether statutory or nonstatutory, might be. Post, at 742-746. But such jurors obviously deem mitigating evidence to be irrelevant to their decision to impose the death penalty: They not only refuse to give such evidence any weight but are also plainly saying that mitigating evidence is not worth their consideration and that they will not consider it. While Justice Scalia’s jaundiced view of our decision today may best be explained by his rejection of the line of cases tracing from Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U. S. 280 (1976), and Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 (1978), and developing the nature and role of mitigating evidence in the trial of capital offenses, see Walton v. Arizona, 497 U. S. 639, 669-673 (1990) (Scalia, J, concurring in part and concurring in judgment); Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U. S. 808, 833 (1991) (Scalia, J., concurring); Sochor v. Florida, ante, at 554 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), it is a view long rejected by this Court. More important to our purposes here, however, his view finds no support in either the statutory or decisional law of Illinois because that law is consistent with'the requirements concerning mitigating evi*737dence described in this Court’s cases. See Turner v. Murray, supra, at 34-35 (plurality opinion).
The Illinois death penalty statute provides that “[t]he court shall consider, or shall instruct the jury to consider any aggravating and any mitigating factors which are relevant to the imposition of the death penalty,” Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 38, ¶ 9-1(c) (Supp. 1990), and lists certain mitigating factors that the legislature must have deemed relevant to such imposition, ibid,.10 The statute explicitly directs the procedure controlling this jury deliberation:
“If there is a unanimous finding by the jury that one or more of the factors [enumerated in aggravation] exist, the jury shall consider aggravating and mitigating factors as instructed by the court and shall determine whether the sentence of death shall be imposed. If the jury determines unanimously that there are no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude the imposition of the death sentence, the court shall sentence the defendant to death.” ¶ 9-1 (g).
In accord with this statutory procedure, the trial judge in this case instructed the jury:
“In deciding whether the Defendant should be sentenced to death, you should consider all the aggravating *738factors supported by the evidence and all the mitigating factors supported by the evidence.
“If you unanimously find, from your consideration of all the evidence, that there are no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude imposition of the death sentence, then you should sign the verdict requiring the Court sentence the Defendant to death.” App. 122-123.
Any juror who states that he or she will automatically vote for the death penalty without regard to the mitigating evidence is announcing an intention not to follow the instructions to consider the mitigating evidence and to decide if it is sufficient to preclude imposition of the death penalty. Any contrary reading of this instruction, or more importantly, the controlling statute, renders the term “sufficient” meaningless. The statute plainly indicates that a lesser sentence is available in every case where mitigating evidence exists; thus any juror who would invariably impose the death penalty upon conviction cannot be said to have reached this decision based on all the evidence. While Justice Scalia chooses to argue that such a “merciless juro[r]” is not a “lawless” one, post, at 751, he is in error, for such a juror will not give mitigating evidence the consideration that the statute contemplates. Indeed, the Illinois Supreme Court recognizes that jurors are not impartial if they would automatically vote for the death penalty, and that questioning in the manner petitioner requests is a direct and helpful means of protecting a defendant’s right to an impartial jury. See n. 3, supra. The State has not suggested otherwise in this Court.
Surely if in a particular Illinois case the judge, who imposes sentence should the defendant waive his right to jury sentencing under the statute, see n. 1, supra, was to announce that, to him or her, mitigating evidence is beside the point and that he or she intends to impose the death penalty without regard to the nature or extent of mitigating evidence *739if the defendant is found guilty of a capital offense, that judge is refusing in advance to follow the statutory direction to consider that evidence and should disqualify himself oí herself. Any juror to whom mitigating factors are likewise irrelevant should be disqualified for cause, for that juror has formed an opinion concerning the merits of the case without basis in the evidence developed at trial. Accordingly, the defendant in this case was entitled to have the inquiry made that he proposed to the trial judge.
> h — 1
Because the “inadequacy of voir dire” leads us to doubt that petitioner was sentenced to death by a jury empaneled in compliance with the Fourteenth Amendment, his sentence cannot stand.11 Turner v. Murray, 476 U. S., at 37. Accordingly, the judgment of the Illinois Supreme Court affirming petitioner’s death sentence is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

So ordered.

 Illinois Rev. Stat., eh. 38, ¶ 9-1(e) (Supp. 1990), provides:
“Mitigating factors may include but need not be limited to the following:
“(1) the defendant has no significant history of prior criminal activity;
“(2) the murder was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, although not such as to constitute a defense to prosecution;
“(3) the murdered individual was a participant in the defendant’s homicidal conduct or consented to the homicidal act;
“(4) the defendant acted under the compulsion of threat or menace of the imminent infliction of death or great bodily harm;
“(5) the defendant was not personally present during commission of the act or acts causing death.”

 Our decision today has no bearing on the validity of petitioner’s conviction. Witherspoon, 391 U. S., at 523, n. 21.