Cite as: 512 U. S. 967 (1994)
Blackmun, J., dissenting
factors that are factually relevant to the case.20 Clearly, some of the mitigating circumstances are so unusual that treating their absence as an aggravating circumstance would make them applicable to virtually all murderers. See People v. Davenport, 41 Cal. 3d 247, 289, 710 P. 2d 861, 888 (1985) (most murder cases present the absence of the mitigating circumstances of moral justification and victim participation). An aggravating factor that exists in nearly every capital case fails to fulfill its purpose of guiding the jury in distinguishing "those who deserve capital punishment from those who do not." Arave v. Creech, 507 U. S. 463, 474 (1993). Moreover, a process creating the risk that the absence of mitigation will count as aggravation artificially inflates the number of aggravating factors the jury weighs, "creat[ing] the possibility not only of randomness but also of bias in favor of . . . death." Stringer v. Black, 503 U. S., at 236.
In short, open-ended factors and a lack of guidance to regularize the jurors' application of these factors create a system in which, as a practical matter, improper arguments can be made in the courtroom and credited in the jury room. I am at a loss to see how these challenged factors furnish the " 'clear and objective standards' that provide 'specific and detailed guidance,' and that 'make rationally reviewable the process for imposing a sentence of death.' " Walton v. Arizona, 497 U. S. 639, 651 (1990) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), quoting Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S., at 428 (some internal quotation marks omitted).
B
One of the greatest evils of leaving jurors with largely unguided discretion is the risk that this discretion will be
20 Although the trial judge at petitioner Tuilaepa's trial instructed the jury on only those factors that were factually relevant, the jury at petitioner Proctor's trial was instructed on all of the factors in § 190.3. The prosecutor argued that 9 of the 11 factors were aggravating. Brief for Petitioner in No. 93-5161, pp. 4-5.
991
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