Cite as: 506 U. S. 461 (1993)
Souter, J., dissenting
substantially beyond the scope of all the special issues." 950 F. 2d 1009, 1027 (CA5 1992) (en banc). It also limited the application of Penry to mitigating evidence of circumstances that were not "transitory," but were "uniquely severe permanent handicaps with which the defendant was burdened through no fault of his own." See 950 F. 2d, at 1029. Penry lends no support for these limitations, however, and they are plainly at odds with other controlling Eighth Amendment precedents, which the Court does not purport to disturb.
B
Our cases have construed the Eighth Amendment to impose two limitations upon a state capital sentencing system. First, in determining who is eligible for the death penalty, the "State must 'narrow the class of murderers subject to capital punishment,' . . . by providing 'specific and detailed guidance' to the sentencer." McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U. S. 279, 303 (1987) (quoting Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 196 (1976), and Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U. S. 242, 253 (1976)). Second, "the Constitution [nonetheless] limits a State's ability to narrow a sentencer's discretion to consider relevant evidence that might cause it to decline to impose the death sentence." 481 U. S., at 304 (emphasis in original). It is this latter limitation that concerns us today.
Our cases require that a sentencer in a capital case be permitted to give a "reasoned moral response" to the defendant's mitigating evidence. See California v. Brown, 479 U. S. 538, 545 (1987) (O'Connor, J., concurring) (emphasis deleted). In so doing, "[t]he sentencer . . . [cannot] be precluded from considering as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death." Lockett, 438 U. S., at 604 (plurality opinion) (emphasis in original; footnote omitted). This is understood to follow from our conclusion that "[a]ny exclusion of the 'compassionate or mitigating factors stem-
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