Cite as: 504 U. S. 527 (1992)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
It seems that the omission of the words "harmless error" from the opinion below is the root of this Court's dissatisfaction with it. In all likelihood, the Supreme Court of Florida will reimpose Sochor's death sentence on remand, perhaps by appending a sentence using the talismanic phrase "harmless error." Form will then correspond to substance, but this marginal benefit does not justify our effort to supervise the opinion writing of state courts. I would therefore affirm the judgment below.
Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Blackmun joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
We granted certiorari to consider two questions.1 The Court answers the first question in Parts III-B and IV of its opinion, see ante, at 538-540, which I join. I do not, however, agree with the Court's treatment of the plain error that occurred when the trial judge instructed the jury at the penalty phase of the trial. See ante, at 532-534. Florida argues that this error was harmless because the death sentence was imposed by the judge rather than the jury. The Court today does not address this argument because it concludes that petitioner waived the error by failing to object to the instruction. I disagree with this Court in its effort
1 Petitioner included four questions in his petition for writ of certiorari; however, the Court limited its grant to a consideration of questions two and four, which petitioner framed as follows:
"2. Did the Florida Supreme Court's review of petitioner's death sentence violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments where that court upheld the sentence even though the trial court had instructed the jury on, and had applied, an improper aggravating circumstance, where the Florida Supreme Court did not reweigh the evidence or conduct a harmless error analysis as to the effect of improper use of the circumstance on the jury's penalty verdict?"
"4. Did the application of Florida's 'especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel' aggravating circumstance at bar violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments?" Pet. for Cert. ii.
545
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