344
Opinion of the Court
tion and footnote omitted).10 Although petitioner describes his standard as narrower than that adopted by the Eighth and Ninth Circuits,11 in reality it is only more closely related to the facts of his case in which he alleges that constitutional error kept true mitigating evidence from the jury. The crucial consideration, according to petitioner, is whether due to constitutional error the sentencer was presented with " 'a factually inaccurate sentencing profile' " of the petitioner. Brief for Petitioner 15, n. 21, quoting Johnson v. Singletary, 938 F. 2d 1166, 1200 (CA11 1991) (en banc) (Anderson, J., dissenting).
Insofar as petitioner's standard would include not merely the elements of the crime itself, but the existence of aggravating circumstances, it broadens the extent of the inquiry but not the type of inquiry. Both the elements of the crime and statutory aggravating circumstances in Louisiana are
10 Petitioner's standard derives from language in Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S. 527 (1986). Petitioner maintains that Smith holds that if one can show that the error precludes the development of true mitigating evidence, actual innocence has been shown. Brief for Petitioner 21. By emphasizing that in Smith the fundamental miscarriage of justice exception had not been met because, inter alia, the constitutional error did not lead the jury to consider any false evidence, we did not hold its converse, that an error which leads to the consideration of "false" mitigating evidence amounts to a miscarriage of justice.
11 In Deutscher v. Whitley, 946 F. 2d 1443 (1991), the Ninth Circuit phrased its test as follows: "To establish a fundamental miscarriage of justice at sentencing, a defendant must establish that constitutional error substantially undermined the accuracy of the capital sentencing determination. This requires a showing that constitutional error infected the sentencing process to such a degree that it is more probable than not that, but for constitutional error, the sentence of death would not have been imposed." Id., at 1446 (citations omitted).
The Eighth Circuit has adopted a similar test: " 'In the penalty-phase context, this exception will be available if the federal constitutional error alleged probably resulted in a verdict of death against one whom the jury would otherwise have sentenced to life imprisonment.' " Stokes v. Armontrout, 893 F. 2d 152, 156 (1989), quoting Smith v. Armontrout, 888 F. 2d 530, 545 (1989).
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007