Cite as: 509 U. S. 350 (1993)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
could "affect the sentencing decision." Id., at 608. Accord, Bell v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 637, 641-642 (1978) (petitioner's counsel offered a wide range of mitigating evidence at the penalty phase, and according to the Ohio statute, the sentencer was to consider that evidence; petitioner's death sentence reversed nevertheless because the statute unconstitutionally limited consideration of the evidence as mitigating factors).
The Court next addressed the constitutional requirement that a sentencer be allowed to give full consideration and full effect to mitigating circumstances in Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U. S. 104 (1982). Although the Oklahoma death penalty statute contained no specific restrictions on the types of mitigating evidence that could be considered, neither the Oklahoma trial court nor the Court of Criminal Appeals believed that it could consider, as mitigating factors, the evidence of petitioner's unhappy upbringing and emotional disturbance. See id., at 109-110. The Court reversed petitioner's death sentence. In so doing, it reaffirmed the rule of Lockett: The sentencer in a capital case must be permitted to consider relevant mitigating factors in ways that can affect the sentencing decision. This rule, the Court explained, accommodated the twin objectives of our Eighth Amendment jurisprudence: "measured, consistent application and fairness to the accused." 455 U. S., at 111.
Four years later, the Court again made plain that Lockett and Eddings meant what they said. In Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U. S. 1 (1986), we reiterated that evidence, even if not "relate[d] specifically to petitioner's culpability for the crime he committed," id., at 4, must be treated as relevant mitigating evidence if it serves " 'as a basis for a sentence less than death,' " id., at 5 (quoting Lockett, supra, at 604). We summarized the "constitutionally permissible range of discretion in imposing the death penalty" the following Term in McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U. S. 279, 305-306 (1987):
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