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Opinion of Blackmun, J.
jury instruction defining reasonable doubt in Sandoval used the phrases "moral certainty" and "moral evidence," but the phrases were not used in conjunction with language of the type at issue here—language that easily may be interpreted as overstating the degree of doubt required to acquit. In other words, in Victor's instruction, unlike Sandoval's, all of the misleading language is mutually reinforcing, both overstating the degree of doubt necessary to acquit and under-stating the degree of certainty required to convict.
This confusing and misleading state of affairs leads me ineluctably to the conclusion that, in Victor's case, there exists a reasonable likelihood that the jury believed that a lesser burden of proof rested with the prosecution; and, moreover, it prevents me from distinguishing the jury instruction challenged in Victor's case from the one issued in Cage. As with the Cage instruction, it simply cannot be said that Victor's instruction accurately informed the jury as to the degree of certainty required for conviction and the degree of doubt required for acquittal. Where, as here, a jury instruction attempts but fails to convey with clarity and accuracy the meaning of reasonable doubt, the reviewing court should reverse the conviction and remand for a new trial. See Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U. S., at 277-288. I would vacate the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nebraska and remand the case.
II
Although I concur in the Court's opinion in No. 92-9049, Sandoval v. California, I dissent from the Court's affirmance of the judgment in that case. Adhering to my view that the death penalty cannot be imposed fairly within the constraints of our Constitution, see my dissent in Callins v. Collins, 510 U. S. 1141, 1143 (1994), I would vacate the sentence of death in Sandoval. And, in view of my dissent in Callins, I also would vacate the sentence of death in No. 92-8894, Victor v. Nebraska, even if I believed that the underlying conviction withstood constitutional scrutiny.
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