Romano v. Oklahoma, 512 U.S. 1, 15 (1994)

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Cite as: 512 U. S. 1 (1994)

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

admitted. Petitioner's sentencing jury was told that he had been sentenced to death—and indeed he had been. Introducing that evidence is no different than providing the jury with an accurate description of a State's appellate review process. Both may (though we can never know for sure) lessen the jury's sense of responsibility, but neither is unconstitutional. Though evidence like that involved in this case can rise to the level of a Caldwell violation, to do so the evidence must be both inaccurate and tend to undermine the jury's sense of responsibility. Ibid.

It may well have been better practice for the State to agree to accept petitioner's stipulation offer, or to excise the sentencing information before submitting the Judgment and Sentence form to the jury. But under our precedents, because this evidence was accurate, I do not believe its introduction violated the Constitution.

Justice Blackmun, dissenting.

I join Justice Ginsburg's dissent, which persuasively demonstrates why the admission of Romano's prior death sentence, like the prosecutor's arguments in Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U. S. 320 (1985), created an unacceptable risk of leading the jurors to minimize the importance of their roles. Even if this particular constitutional error were not present in this case, I would vacate Romano's death sentence and remand for resentencing in adherence to my view that the death penalty cannot be imposed fairly within the constraints of our Constitution. See Callins v. Collins, 510 U. S. 1141, 1143 (1994).

Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice Blackmun, Justice Stevens, and Justice Souter join, dissenting.

In Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U. S. 320 (1985), this Court overturned a capital sentence as inadequately reliable because of a statement made by the prosecutor, in closing argument at the penalty phase of the trial. The Caldwell prose-

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