No. 96-8400
Argued: November 3, 1997Decided: January 21, 1998
Held: The absence of instructions on the concept of mitigation and on particular statutorily defined mitigating factors did not violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. In arguing to the contrary, Buchanan fails to distinguish between the differing constitutional treatment this Court has accorded the two phases of the capital sentencing process: the eligibility phase, in which the jury narrows the class of death-penalty-eligible defendants, and the selection phase here at issue, in which the jury determines whether to impose a death sentence on an eligible defendant. See, e.g., Tuilaepa v. California, 512 U.S. 967, 971 -972. In the selection phase, the state may shape and structure the jury’s consideration of mitigating evidence, so long as restrictions on the sentencing determination do not preclude the jury from giving effect to any such evidence. E.g., Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 317 -318. The determinative standard is whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury has applied its instructions in a way that prevents consideration of constitutionally relevant evidence. E.g., Boyde v. California , 494 U.S. 370, 380 . The instructions here did not violate these constitutional principles. This conclusion is confirmed by the context in which the instructions were given. The court directed the jurors to base their decision on “all the evidence” and to impose a life sentence if they believed the evidence so warranted, there was extensive testimony as to Buchanan’s family background and mental and emotional problems, and counsel made detailed arguments on the mitigating evidence. Because the parties in effect agreed that there was substantial mitigating evidence and that the jury had to weigh that evidence against Buchanan’s conduct in making a discretionary decision on the appropriate penalty, there is not a reasonable likelihood that the jurors understood the instructions to preclude consideration of relevant mitigating evidence. Pp. 5-9.
