Cite as: 503 U. S. 222 (1992)
Souter, J., dissenting
minimum, the state appellate court would have to reweigh or perform harmless-error review, id., at 751-752.
In rejecting a more relaxed rule "authorizing or requiring affirmance of a death sentence so long as there remains at least one valid aggravating circumstance," the Court explained:
"An automatic rule of affirmance in a weighing State would be invalid under Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 (1978), and Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U. S. 104 (1982), for it would not give defendants the individualized treatment that would result from actual reweighing of the mix of mitigating factors and aggravating circumstances. Cf. Barclay v. Florida, [supra, at 958]." Id., at 752.
See also Parker v. Dugger, 498 U. S. 308, 321-322 (1991).
Today the Court adds to Clemons' explanation by reasoning that a sentencer's weighing of a vague aggravating circumstance deprives the defendant of individualized sentencing because it "creates the possibility . . . of randomness." Ante, at 236. The Court says that a sentencer's weighing of a vague aggravating circumstance may "ske[w]" the weighing process, ante, at 232, by placing a "thumb [on] death's side of the scale," ibid., by "creat[ing] the risk [of] treat[ing] the defendant as more deserving of the death penalty," ante, at 235-236, or by "creat[ing] the possibility . . . of bias in favor of the death penalty," ibid.2
II
Like Godfrey and Stephens, the petitioner in the instant case was sentenced to death after a finding of a vague aggra-2 The mere fact that an aggravating circumstance inclines a sentencer more towards imposing the death penalty cannot, of course, violate the Eighth Amendment. I therefore read the majority opinion to object to the weighing of vague aggravating circumstances only because they skew the operation of the scheme by their random application from case to case.
243
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