282
Stevens, J., dissenting
criminal proceedings.3 Accordingly, as the case comes to us, the record is silent on the question whether respondent led an entirely blameless life prior to this offense.
Missouri's capital sentencing statute provides that the absence of any significant history of prior criminal activity is a circumstance militating against the imposition of the death penalty.4 In Missouri, therefore—as in the many States with the same statutory mitigating factor—the jury should be so instructed when the record contains no evidence of any prior record of criminal activity.
The legal basis for the Court's summary disposition of this case is the general rule that a trial judge's instructions to the jury must normally relate to evidence in the record. That general rule, however, has no application to an instruction on the presumption of innocence in an ordinary criminal trial. In my opinion, the general rule is equally inapplicable in the capital sentencing process when the defendant requests an
3 The relevant Missouri statute provides: "1. No adjudication by the juvenile court upon the status of a child shall be deemed a conviction nor shall the adjudication operate to impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily resulting from conviction nor shall the child be found guilty or be deemed a criminal by reason of the adjudication.
. . . . . "3. After a child is taken into custody as provided in section 211.131, all admissions, confessions, and statements by the child to the juvenile officer and juvenile court personnel and all evidence given in cases under this chapter, as well as all reports and records of the juvenile court are not lawful or proper evidence against the child and shall not be used for any purpose whatsoever in any proceeding, civil or criminal, other than proceedings under this chapter." Mo. Rev. Stat. § 211.271 (1978) (emphasis added).
4 Missouri Rev. Stat. § 565.012.3(1) (1978) (current version Mo. Rev. Stat. § 565.032.3(1) (Supp. 1991)) establishes the following as a statutory mitigating factor:
"The defendant ha[d] no significant history of prior criminal activity." Even if the statute did not so provide, our holding in Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 (1978), would require that consideration be given to that mitigating factor.
Page: Index Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007