286
Stevens, J., dissenting
jury uninformed that the state legislature had expressly authorized it to withhold that sentence because the defendant had no prior criminal record.8
II
The mitigating factor in question corresponds precisely to the presumption of innocence. When the trial record reveals no prior criminal history at all the presumption serves as "a prima facie case, and in that sense it is, temporarily, the substitute or equivalent for evidence," Thayer 575, that a criminal defendant is blameless in spite of his indictment, and that even after conviction of one crime, he is presumptively innocent of all other crimes. The State cannot refute the presumption of innocence at the guilt phase of the trial without presenting any evidence that the defendant committed the act for which he was indicted; similarly, it has no basis for objecting to a mitigating instruction on the absence of a prior criminal history if it has done nothing to rebut the prima facie case established by the presumption of innocence at the sentencing phase of the trial.9
8 It is true that respondent's claim of constitutional error focused on the trial court's refusal to prohibit cross-examination about his juvenile record and did not mention the presumption of innocence. Similarly, the Court of Appeals relied on the rationale of Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 (1978), without mentioning the presumption. Nevertheless, our jurisprudence firmly establishes that it is appropriate to affirm a judgment on a ground that was not raised below. It is manifestly unjust to reverse a correct judgment and to reinstate the death penalty simply because the basis for the judgment was not adequately articulated in earlier proceedings.
9 As the Court correctly notes, just as we have held generally that refusing to give an instruction on the presumption of innocence is not always reversible error, we have also held as a general matter that a capital defendant may be required to present evidence supporting a requested instruction on a statutory mitigating factor. Ante, at 275-276. We have even held that the State may require a capital defendant to support a requested jury instruction with a preponderance of the evidence. Walton v. Arizona, 497 U. S. 639 (1990). But we have never held that a defendant
with a presumptively clean record must present additional evidence in sup-
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