Cite as: 521 U. S. 151 (1997)
Stevens, J., dissenting
fused to allow petitioner to advise the jury that if the death sentence were not imposed, he would be imprisoned for the rest of his life without any possibility of parole. Thus, he was denied the opportunity to make a fair response to the prosecutor's misleading argument about the future danger that he allegedly posed to the community.
Our virtually unanimous decision in Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994),2 recognized the fundamental unfairness of the restrictive procedure followed in this case. As Justice O’Connor's opinion, which has been treated as expressing the narrowest ground on which the decision rested, explained:
" 'Capital sentencing proceedings must of course satisfy the dictates of the Due Process Clause,' Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S. 738, 746 (1990), and one of the hallmarks of due process in our adversary system is the defendant's ability to meet the State's case against him. Cf. Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 683, 690 (1986). In capital cases, we have held that the defendant's future dangerousness is a consideration on which the State may rely in seeking the death penalty. See California v. Ramos, 463 U. S. 992, 1002-1003 (1983). But '[w]here the prosecution specifically relies on a prediction of future dangerousness in asking for the death penalty, . . . the elemental due process requirement that a defendant not be sentenced to death "on the basis of information which he had no opportunity to deny or explain" [requires that the defendant be afforded an opportunity to introduce evidence on this point].' Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U. S. 1, 5, n. 1 (1986), quoting Gardner v. Florida, 430 U. S. 349, 362 (1977) (plurality opinion); see
2 In the years following our decision in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 (1972) (per curiam), unanimous Court opinions in capital cases have been virtually nonexistent. The decision in Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), came closer than most, for only two Justices dissented.
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