Cite as: 503 U. S. 222 (1992)
Souter, J., dissenting
Amendment, for the same reason the sentence in Stephens did not: the remaining aggravating circumstances satisfied the Eighth Amendment's narrowing requirement. See id., at 957 (plurality opinion); id., at 966-967 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment); see also id., at 947-948, n. 5 (plurality opinion) (distinguishing Godfrey as involving only one aggravating circumstance).
B
The first case in which this Court applied the rule from which petitioner seeks to benefit was Maynard v. Cart-wright, 486 U. S. 356 (1988). There, an Oklahoma jury had found the presence of two aggravating circumstances, one of which was that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." Because Oklahoma is a weighing State, the trial court had instructed the jury that, in determining the penalty, it should weigh these aggravating circumstances against any mitigating circumstances, and the jury had eventually returned a verdict of death. On collateral review, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that the "heinous, atrocious, or cruel" circumstance without further instruction was vague in the Godfrey sense. See Cartwright v. Maynard, 822 F. 2d 1477, 1485-1491 (1987) (en banc). Distinguishing Stephens, the Court of Appeals held that this vagueness amounted to an Eighth Amendment violation because Oklahoma was a weighing State, 822 F. 2d, at 1480.1 It vacated Cartwright's sentence, noting that Oklahoma's highest court had failed to cure the constitutional defect by either reweighing or performing harmless-error review, id., at 1482.
This Court affirmed, holding that Godfrey controlled because the "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" circumstance gave no more guidance than the "outrageously or
1 There are only hints in its opinion of the reason this distinction made a difference. See 822 F. 2d, at 1480-1481 (individualized sentencing); id., at 1485 (narrowing).
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