Cite as: 506 U. S. 461 (1993)
Souter, J., dissenting
associated with the instant crime, and the age of the defendant. Jurek, 428 U. S., at 272-273. Thus, we had a reasonable expectation that the sentencer would have authority to give comprehensive effect to each defendant's mitigating evidence. As Penry revealed, however, and as the facts of this case confirm, neither the second nor the other special issues have been construed with enough scope to allow the full consideration of mitigating potential that Lockett and Eddings confirmed are required, and challenges to the Texas statute as applied may be sustained despite the statute's capacity to withstand Jurek's facial challenge. In its holding that a death sentence resulting from the application of the Texas special issues could not be upheld unless the jury was able "to consider fully [the defendant's] mitigating evidence," 492 U. S., at 323,8 Penry is a perfectly straightforward application of the Eighth Amendment's requirement of individualized sentencing.9
8 See also Jurek, 428 U. S., at 272 (joint opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.) ("[T]he constitutionality of the Texas procedures turns on whether the enumerated questions allow consideration of particularized mitigating factors").
9 Justice Thomas argues, ante, at 493, that the rule applied in Penry "originated entirely from whole cloth in two recent concurring opinions," California v. Brown, 479 U. S. 538, 545 (1987) (O'Connor, J., concurring), and Franklin v. Lynaugh, supra, at 185 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment), and that it requires "unbridled" jury discretion, even to the point that the death penalty may be withheld on the basis of race, ante, at 494.
As to the first contention, Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S 586 (1978), was understood at the time it was handed down to require that constitutionally relevant mitigating evidence (the definition of which is given below) be given full consideration and effect. See, e. g., id., at 623 (White, J., concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in judgments) (emphasis added) (Lockett "requir[es] as a matter of constitutional law that sentencing authorities be permitted to consider and in their discretion to act upon any and all mitigating circumstances"). This is the understanding upon which Lockett and Eddings have consistently been applied by the Court. See Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U. S. 1, 7 (1986) ("Assuming . . . that [a State Supreme Court] rule would in any case have the effect of precluding the defendant from introducing otherwise admissible evi-
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