Cite as: 512 U. S. 154 (1994)
Souter, J., concurring
should be vacated as having been "arbitrarily or discriminatorily" and "wantonly and . . . freakishly imposed." Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238, 249 (1972) (Douglas, J., concurring) (internal quotation marks omitted); id., at 310 (Stewart, J., concurring).
While I join the other Members of the Court's majority in holding that, at least, counsel ought to be permitted to inform the jury of the law that it must apply, see ante, at 169 (plurality opinion); post, at 174 (Ginsburg, J., concurring); post, at 178 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment), I also accept the general rule that, on matters of law, arguments of counsel do not effectively substitute for statements by the court.
"[A]rguments of counsel generally carry less weight with a jury than do instructions from the court. The former are usually billed in advance to the jury as matters of argument, not evidence, and are likely viewed as the statements of advocates; the latter, we have often recognized, are viewed as definitive and binding statements of the law." Boyde v. California, 494 U. S. 370, 384 (1990) (citation omitted).
I would thus impose that straightforward duty on the court.
Because Justice Blackmun persuasively demonstrates that juries in general are likely to misunderstand the meaning of the term "life imprisonment" in a given context, see ante, at 159, 169-170, and n. 9, the judge must tell the jury what the term means, when the defendant so requests. It is, moreover, clear that at least one of these particular jurors did not understand the meaning of the term, since the jury sent a note to the judge asking, "Does the imposition of a life sentence carry with it the possibility of parole?" Ante, at 160, 170, n. 10. The answer here was easy and controlled by state statute. The judge should have said no. Justice Blackmun shows that the instruction actually given was at
173
Page: Index Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007