98
Opinion of the Court
ficial barrier to the provision of instructions on offenses that actually are lesser included offenses under state law.
The Court of Appeals justified its holding principally on the ground that respondent had been placed in the same position as the defendant in Beck--that there had been a distortion of the factfinding process because his jury had been " 'forced into an all-or-nothing choice between capital murder and innocence.' " 102 F. 3d, at 982 (quoting Spaziano v. Florida, 468 U. S. 447, 455 (1984)). In so doing, the Court of Appeals again overlooked significant distinctions between this case and Beck. In Beck, the death penalty was automatically tied to conviction, and Beck's jury was told that if it convicted the defendant of the charged offense, it was required to impose the death penalty. See Beck v. Alabama, 447 U. S., at 639, n. 15. This threatened to make the issue at trial whether the defendant should be executed or not, rather than "whether the State ha[d] proved each and every element of the capital crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Id., at 643, n. 19. In addition, the distortion of the trial process carried over directly to sentencing, because an Alabama jury unwilling to acquit had no choice but to impose the death penalty. There was thus a significant possibility that the death penalty would be imposed upon defendants whose conduct did not merit it, simply because their juries might be convinced that they had committed some serious crime and should not escape punishment entirely.
These factors are not present here. Respondent's jury did not have the burden of imposing a sentence. Indeed, with respect to respondent's insanity defense, it was specifically instructed that it had "no right to take into consideration what punishment or disposition he may or may not receive in the event of his conviction or . . . acquittal by reason of insanity." App. 24. In addition, the three-judge panel that imposed the death penalty did not have to consider the dilemma faced by Beck's jury; its alternative to death was not
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