Cite as: 520 U. S. 518 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
jury rendered merely an "advisory sentence," § 921.141(2)—as requiring the trial judge to give "great weight" to a jury's advisory recommendation, Tedder v. State, supra, that court nonetheless emphasized that the trial court must "independently weigh the evidence in aggravation and mitigation," and that "[u]nder no combination of circumstances can th[e] [jury's] recommendation usurp the judge's role by limiting his discretion." Eutzy v. State, 458 So. 2d 755, 759 (Fla. 1984), cert. denied, 471 U. S. 1045 (1985). In one case, the Florida Supreme Court vacated a sentence because the trial court had given "undue weight to the jury's recommendation of death and did not make an independent judgment of whether or not the death penalty should be imposed." Ross v. State, 386 So. 2d 1191, 1197 (1980) (emphasis added). In Spaziano v. Florida, supra, we acknowledged that the Florida trial court conducts "its own weighing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances," id., at 451, and that "[r]egardless of the jury's recommendation, the trial judge is required to conduct an independent review of the evidence and to make his own findings regarding aggravating and mitigating circumstances," id., at 466 (emphasis added); see also Proffitt, 428 U. S., at 251.5 Given these precedents, it was rea-5 Justice Stevens accuses us of "simply ignoring the reasoning in Tedder." Post, at 543 (dissenting opinion). We have of course not done so. See supra, at 526, 533-534 and this page. Justice Stevens, however, fails to discuss, or indeed even mention, the cases interpreting Tedder that contradict the dissent's view—cases in both this Court and the Florida Supreme Court repeatedly emphasizing the trial judge's obligation to make an independent assessment and weighing of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. He relies, for example, upon the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Riley v. Wainwright, 517 So. 2d 656 (1987), see post, at 541, n. 3 (a decision rendered after Lambrix's conviction became final and hence not technically relevant). But subsequent to that case the Florida Supreme Court summarized its jurisprudence as follows: "Our case law contains many instances where a trial judge's override of a jury recommendation of life has been upheld. Notwithstanding the jury recommendation, whether it be for life imprisonment or death, the judge is required to make an independent determination, based on the
535
Page: Index Previous 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007