Cite as: 506 U. S. 461 (1993)
Thomas, J., concurring
the defendant a full and fair opportunity to apprise the sentencer of all constitutionally relevant circumstances. The three Texas special issues easily satisfy this standard. "In providing for juries to consider all mitigating circumstances insofar as they bear upon (1) deliberateness, (2) future dangerousness, and (3) provocation, . . . Texas had adopted a rational scheme that meets the two concerns of our Eighth Amendment jurisprudence." Penry, 492 U. S., at 358-359 (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part).
As a predicate, moreover, I believe this Court should leave it to elected state legislators, "representing organized society," to decide which factors are "particularly relevant to the sentencing decision." Gregg, supra, at 192. Although Lockett and Eddings indicate that as a general matter, "a State cannot take out of the realm of relevant sentencing considerations the questions of the defendant's 'character,' 'record,' or the 'circumstances of the offense,' " they do "not hold that the State has no role in structuring or giving shape to the jury's consideration of these mitigating factors." Franklin v. Lynaugh, 487 U. S., at 179 (plurality opinion). Ultimately, we must come back to a recognition that "the States, and not this Court, retain 'the traditional authority' to determine what particular evidence within the broad categories described in Lockett and Eddings is relevant in the first instance," Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U. S., at 11 (Powell, J., concurring in judgment) (quoting Lockett, 438 U. S., at 604, n. 12), since "[t]his Court has no special expertise in deciding whether particular categories of evidence are too speculative or insubstantial to merit consideration by the sentencer," 476 U. S., at 15.11 Accordingly, I also propose
11 Under the Federal Sentencing Reform Act, for example, Congress has instructed the United States Sentencing Commission to study the difficult question whether certain specified offender characteristics "have any relevance" in sentencing. 28 U. S. C. § 994(d). In response to this directive, the Sentencing Commission has issued guidelines providing, among other
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