278
Per Curiam
sentence report that is created is available to both the government and the defense. In this case, Lashley has not suggested that he was unable to offer his presentence report as evidence that his prior criminal record was insignificant. Moreover, the statutory mitigating circumstance refers not to arrests or convictions, but more broadly to "criminal activity." To the extent that this includes criminal conduct that has not resulted in formal charges, no one is better able than the defendant to make the required proffer.
II
The dissent contends that this case is not about the requirements of Lockett at all, but about the "presumption of innocence." Post, at 281. The question the dissent raises is indeed "novel," ibid.; it apparently was not raised in either the District Court or the Court of Appeals, and it was not presented to this Court. Nor does the dissent's argument compel a different result. To be sure, we have said that "[t]he presumption of innocence, although not articulated in the Constitution, is a basic component of a fair trial under our system of criminal justice." Estelle v. Williams, 425 U. S. 501, 503 (1976). The presumption operates at the guilt phase of a trial to remind the jury that the State has the burden of establishing every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Taylor v. Kentucky, 436 U. S. 478, 484, n. 12 (1978). But even at the guilt phase, the defendant is not entitled automatically to an instruction that he is presumed innocent of the charged offense. Kentucky v. Whorton, 441 U. S. 786, 789 (1979) (per curiam). An instruction is constitutionally required only when, in light of the totality of the circumstances, there is a " 'genuine danger' " that the jury will convict based on something other than the State's lawful evidence, proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Ibid. (quoting Taylor, supra, at 488).
Once the defendant has been convicted fairly in the guilt phase of the trial, the presumption of innocence disappears.
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