46
Opinion of the Court
had been imposed in Richmond II and, in the alternative, that petitioner's sentence could stand without that factor despite our decision in Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S. 738 (1990). "Elimination of the challenged factor would still leave enough support for [petitioner's] sentence because the statute at issue here is not a 'weighing' statute." 921 F. 2d, at 947. The opinion later was amended to omit that sentence, but the amended opinion still reasoned: "Under the statute at issue in Clemons, the invalidation of an aggravating circumstance necessarily renders any evidence of mitigation 'weightier' or more substantial in a relative sense; the same, however, cannot be said under the terms of the Arizona statute at issue here." 948 F. 2d 1473, 1488-1489 (1992).
The Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc, with four judges dissenting. Id., at 1476. We granted certiorari, 503 U. S. 958 (1992), and now reverse.
II
Petitioner challenges his death sentence imposed at resentencing in 1980. He argues that the "especially heinous, cruel or depraved" aggravating factor specified by Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-703(F)(6) (1989), upon which the sentencing judge relied, was unconstitutionally vague, and that the Supreme Court of Arizona failed to cure this invalidity in Richmond II.
The relevant Eighth Amendment law is well defined. First, a statutory aggravating factor is unconstitutionally vague if it fails to furnish principled guidance for the choice between death and a lesser penalty. See, e. g., Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U. S. 356, 361-364 (1988); Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420, 427-433 (1980). Second, in a "weighing" State, where the aggravating and mitigating factors are balanced against each other, it is constitutional error for the sentencer to give weight to an unconstitutionally vague aggravating factor, even if other, valid aggravating factors ob-
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