Cite as: 524 U. S. 721 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
a capital sentencing proceeding." Caspari, 510 U. S., at 392; see also Goldhammer, 474 U. S., at 30 ("[T]he decisions of this Court 'clearly establish that a sentenc[ing in a noncapital case] does not have the qualities of constitutional finality that attend an acquittal' ") (quoting DiFrancesco, 449 U. S., at 134). In addition, we have cited Bullington as an example of the heightened procedural protections accorded capital defendants. See Strickland, supra, at 686-687 ("A capital sentencing proceeding . . . is sufficiently like a trial in its adversarial format and in the existence of standards for decision, see [Bullington], that counsel's role in the proceeding is comparable to counsel's role at trial").
In an attempt to minimize the relevance of the death penalty context, petitioner argues that the application of double jeopardy principles turns on the nature rather than the consequences of the proceeding. For example, petitioner notes that Bullington did not overrule the Court's decision in Stroud v. United States, 251 U. S. 15 (1919)—which found the double jeopardy bar inapplicable to a particular capital sentencing proceeding—but rather distinguished it on the ground that the proceeding at issue did not bear the hallmarks of a trial on guilt or innocence. Stroud predates our decisions in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 (1972) (per curiam), and Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153 (1976) ( joint opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.); it was decided at a time when "no significant constitutional difference between the death penalty and lesser punishments for crime had been expressly recognized by this Court." See Gardner, supra, at 357 (opinion of Stevens, J.). Consequently, the capital sentencing procedures at issue in Stroud did not resemble a trial, and the Court confronted a different question in that case. The holding of Bullington turns on both the trial-like proceedings at issue and the severity of the penalty at stake. That the Court focused on the absence of procedural safeguards in distinguishing an earlier capital
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