Cite as: 516 U. S. 10 (1995)
Per Curiam
subsequently is invalidated, the remaining valid circumstance, or circumstances, will support the sentence.' " Id., at 1363 (quoting 230 Va., at 110, 334 S. E. 2d, at 845, and citing Zant, supra).
II
Our opinion in Zant stressed that the evidence offered to prove the invalid aggravator was "properly adduced at the sentencing hearing and was fully subject to explanation by the defendant." 462 U. S., at 887. As we explained:
"[I]t is essential to keep in mind the sense in which [the stricken] aggravating circumstance is 'invalid.' . . . [T]he invalid aggravating circumstance found by the jury in this case was struck down . . . because the Georgia Supreme Court concluded that it fails to provide an adequate basis for distinguishing a murder case in which the death penalty may be imposed from those cases in which such a penalty may not be imposed. The underlying evidence is nevertheless fully admissible at the sentencing phase." Id., at 885-886 (internal citations omitted).
Zant was thus predicated on the fact that even after elimination of the invalid aggravator, the death sentence rested on firm ground. Two unimpeachable aggravating factors remained and there was no claim that inadmissible evidence was before the jury during its sentencing deliberations or that the defendant had been precluded from adducing relevant mitigating evidence.
In this case, the record does not provide comparable support for petitioner's death sentence. The Ake error prevented petitioner from developing his own psychiatric evidence to rebut the Commonwealth's evidence and to enhance his defense in mitigation. As a result, the Commonwealth's psychiatric evidence went unchallenged, which may have unfairly increased its persuasiveness in the eyes of the jury.
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