358
Blackmun, J., dissenting
A
1
This Court consistently has held that the Constitution requires a State to provide notice to its citizens of what conduct will subject them to criminal penalties and of what those penalties are. See Miller v. Florida, 482 U. S. 423, 429 (1987) (explaining the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws, U. S. Const., Art. I, § 9, cl. 3, § 10, cl. 1); Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U. S. 167, 169 (1925) (same); Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U. S. 1, 77 (1976) (explaining the due process requirement that defendants be on notice that their conduct violates the criminal law); Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U. S. 347, 351 (1964) (same). People can conform their conduct to the dictates of the criminal law only if they can know what the criminal law has to say about their conduct. Proper warning is a constitutional imperative.
Illinois, through its criminal statutes, warned Taylor that his actions, as conceded at trial, were against the law. Illinois, however, did not warn him that murder and voluntary manslaughter would be treated as interchangeable or equivalent offenses. A defendant convicted of voluntary manslaughter, for example, could be incarcerated for as short a term as 4 years, and could be imprisoned for a maximum term of 15 years. A convicted murderer, in contrast, could be imprisoned for no fewer than 20 years and up to a maximum of 40 years, absent aggravating factors. See Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 38, ¶¶ 9-2(c), 1005-8-1(1) and (4) (1985). Under Illinois law at the time of Taylor's acts, then, the offense that he claims he committed—voluntary manslaughter—was not treated as an offense of nearly the same seriousness as murder.4 Nevertheless, in the presence of provocation evidence,
4 This distinction between murder and voluntary manslaughter is hardly a recent innovation in the criminal law. "[T]he presence or absence of the heat of passion on sudden provocation—has been, almost from the inception of the common law of homicide, the single most important factor
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