464
Opinion of the Court
week and was a "real nice, respectable" person. Samby further testified that Graham would pitch in on family chores and that Graham, himself a father of two young children, would "buy . . . clothes for his children and try to give them food."
Graham's grandmother, Emma Chron, testified that Graham had lived with her off and on throughout his childhood because his mother had been hospitalized periodically for a "nervous condition." Chron also stated that she had never known Graham to be violent or disrespectful, that he attended church regularly while growing up, and that "[h]e loved the Lord." In closing arguments to the jury, defense counsel depicted Graham's criminal behavior as aberrational and urged the jury to take Graham's youth into account in deciding his punishment.
In accord with the capital sentencing statute then in effect,1 Graham's jury was instructed that it was to answer three "special issues":
"(1) whether the conduct of the defendant that caused the death of the deceased was committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased or another would result; (2) whether there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society; and (3) if raised by the evidence, whether the conduct of the defendant in killing the deceased was unreasonable in response to the provocation, if any, by the deceased." Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 37.071(b) (Vernon 1981).
The jury unanimously answered each of these questions in the affirmative, and the court, as required by the statute,
1 The Texas Legislature amended the statute in 1991. Those changes are set forth in the opinion of the Court of Appeals. 950 F. 2d 1009, 1012, n. 1 (CA5 1992) (en banc).
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