518
Stevens, J., dissenting
persuasive evidence.4 Instead, the interest that we have identified as the principal justification for the death penalty is retribution: "[C]apital punishment is an expression of society's moral outrage at particularly offensive conduct." Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 183 (1976) ( joint opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); see Gillers, Deciding Who Dies, 129 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1, 54-56 (1980). A capital sentence expresses the community's judgment that no lesser sanction will provide an adequate response to the defendant's outrageous affront to humanity. Gregg, 428 U. S., at 184. A representative cross section of the community should bear the responsibility to "express the conscience of the community on the ultimate question of life or death" in particular cases. Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510, 519 (1968) (footnote omitted). An expression of community outrage carries the legitimacy of law only if it rests on fair and careful consideration, as free as possible from passion or prejudice. Although the public's apparent zeal for legislation authorizing capital punishment might cast doubt on citizens' capacity to apply such legislation fairly, I am convinced that our jury system provides reliable insulation against the passions of the polity. Voting for a political candidate who vows to be "tough on crime" differs vastly from voting at the conclusion of an actual trial to condemn a specific individual to death. Jurors' responsibilities terminate when their case ends; they answer only to their own consciences; they rarely have any concern about possible reprisals after their work is done. More importantly, they focus their attention on a particular case involving the fate of one fellow citizen, rather than on a generalized remedy for a global category of faceless violent criminals who, in the abstract, may appear unworthy of life. A jury verdict expresses a collective judg-4 See, e. g., Spaziano v. Florida, 468 U. S. 447, 478-479 (1984) (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); H. Zeisel, The Limits of Law Enforcement 60-63 (1982); Gillers, Deciding Who Dies, 129 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1, 49-54 (1980).
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