Cite as: 512 U. S. 154 (1994)
Scalia, J., dissenting
any near uniform practice of our people, nor in the jurisprudence of this Court.
With respect to the former I shall discuss only current practice, since the parties and amici have addressed only that, and since traditional practice may be relatively uninformative with regard to the new schemes of capital sentencing imposed upon the States by this Court's recent jurisprudence. The overwhelming majority of the 32 States that permit juries to impose or recommend capital sentences do not allow specific information regarding parole to be given to the jury. To be sure, in many of these States the sentencing choices specifically include "life without parole," so that the jury charge itself conveys the information whether parole is available. In at least eight of those States, however, the jury's choice is not merely between "life without parole" and "death," but among some variation of (parole eligible) "life," "life without parole," and "death" 1—so that the precise date of availability of parole is relevant to the jury's choice. Moreover, even among those States that permit the jury to choose only between "life" (unspecified) and "death," South Carolina is not alone in keeping parole information from the jury. Four other States in widely separated parts of the country follow that same course,2 and there are other States that lack
1 The eight States are Georgia, see Ga. Code Ann. § 17-10-31.1 (Supp. 1993), Indiana, see Ind. Code § 35-50-2-9 (1993), Maryland, see Md. Ann. Code, Art. 27, § 413(c)(3) (Supp. 1993), Nevada, see Nev. Rev. Stat. § 175.554(2)(c)(2) (1993), Oklahoma, see Okla. Stat., Tit. 21, § 701.10(A) (Supp. 1993), Oregon, see Ore. Rev. Stat. § 163.150 (Supp. 1991), Tennessee, see Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-204(a) (Supp. 1993), and Utah, see Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-207(4) (Supp. 1993).
2 The four States are Pennsylvania, see Commonwealth v. Henry, 524 Pa. 135, 159-161, 569 A. 2d 929, 941 (1990), Texas, see Jones v. State, 843 S. W. 2d 487, 495 (Tex. Crim. App. 1992), Virginia, see Eaton v. Commonwealth, 240 Va. 236, 247-250, 397 S. E. 2d 385, 392-393 (1990), and North Carolina, see State v. Brown, 306 N. C. 151, 182-184, 293 S. E. 2d 569, 589 (1982), which will alter its practice effective January 1, 1995, see 1993 N. C. Sess. Laws, ch. 538, § 29.
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