Cite as: 521 U. S. 151 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
jority relied on, two other cases that had been decided by the time petitioner's conviction became final and that bear on its constitutionality: California v. Ramos, 463 U. S. 992 (1983), and Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U. S. 320 (1985). In Ramos, the Court upheld an instruction that informed the jury that a defendant sentenced to life in prison without parole could nonetheless be rendered parole eligible if the Governor elected to commute his sentence. The Court concluded that the instruction neither introduced a constitutionally irrelevant factor into the sentencing process, 463 U. S., at 1001-1004, nor diverted the jury's attention from the task of rendering an "individualized sentencing determination," id., at 1005. Within the bounds of the Constitution, the Court stated that it would defer to California's "identification of the Governor's power to commute a life sentence as a substantive factor to be presented for the sentencing jury's consideration." Id., at 1013. We emphasized, however, that this conclusion was not to be taken to "override the contrary judgment of state legislatures" that capital juries not learn of a Governor's commutation power. Ibid. "Many state courts," we pointed out, "have held it improper for the jury to consider or to be informed—through argument or instruction—of the possibility of commutation, pardon, or parole." Id., at 1013, n. 30 (emphasis added); see also ibid. (citing, inter alia, Ga. Code Ann. § 17-8-76 (1982), and describing that statute as "prohibiting argument as to possibility of pardon, parole, or clemency" (emphasis added)). "We sit as judges, not as legislators, and the wisdom of the decision to permit juror consideration of possible commutation is best left to the States." 463 U. S., at 1014. The dissenters in Ramos disputed the constitutionality of ever informing juries of the Governor's power to commute a death sentence. See id., at 1018 (opinion of Marshall, J., joined by Brennan and Blackmun, JJ.); see also id., at 1019-1020 (asserting that consideration by a capital sentencing jury
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