398
Opinion of Thomas, J.
1
We first address petitioner's contention that the two non-statutory aggravating factors were impermissibly duplicative. The Fifth Circuit reasoned that "[t]he plain meaning of the term 'personal characteristics,' used in [nonstatutory aggravator] 3(C), necessarily includes 'young age, slight stature, background, and unfamiliarity,' which the jury was asked to consider in 3(B)." 132 F. 3d, at 250. The problem, the court thought, was that this duplication led to "double counting" of aggravating factors. Following a Tenth Circuit decision, United States v. McCullah, 76 F. 3d 1087, 1111 (1996), the Fifth Circuit was of the view that in a weighing scheme, "double counting" has a tendency to skew the process so as to give rise to the risk of an arbitrary, and thus unconstitutional, death sentence. 132 F. 3d, at 251. In the Fifth Circuit's words, there may be a thumb on the scale in favor of death "[i]f the jury has been asked to weigh the same aggravating factor twice." Ibid.
We have never before held that aggravating factors could be duplicative so as to render them constitutionally invalid, nor have we passed on the "double counting" theory that the Tenth Circuit advanced in McCullah 13 and the Fifth Circuit appears to have followed here. What we have said is that the weighing process may be impermissibly skewed if the sentencing jury considers an invalid factor. See Stringer v. Black, 503 U. S. 222, 232 (1992). Petitioner's argument (and the reasoning of the Fifth and Tenth Circuits) would have us reach a quite different proposition—that if two aggravating factors are "duplicative," then the weighing process necessarily is skewed, and the factors are therefore invalid.
Even accepting, for the sake of argument, petitioner's "double counting" theory, there are nevertheless several
13 The Tenth Circuit, in a decision subsequent to McCullah, has emphasized that factors do not impermissibly overlap unless one "necessarily subsumes" the other. Cooks v. Ward, 165 F. 3d 1283, 1289 (1998).
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