Court Opinion

ID: 9431343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:04.991124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:27.989433
License: Public Domain

Justice White,
with whom The Chief Justice joins, concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion, agreeing that the death sentence cannot stand, given the introduction of inadmissible and prejudicial evidence at the hearing before the jury. That evidence, however, was irrelevant to the other two aggravating circumstances found to be present, and I note that the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the Court’s opinion. It is left to the Mississippi Supreme Court to decide whether a new sentencing hearing must be held or whether that court should itself decide the appropriate sentence without reference to the inadmissible evidence, thus undertaking to reweigh the two untainted aggravating circumstances against the mitigating circumstances. Cf. Cabana v. Bullock, 474 U. S. 376 (1986).