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Opinion of Thomas, J.
sion based on which number is greater [but rather] should consider the weight and value of each factor." App. 45.
2
We also are of the view that the Fifth Circuit incorrectly concluded that factors 3(B) and 3(C) were unconstitutionally vague. In that court's view, the nonstatutory aggravating factors challenged here "fail[ed] to guide the jury's discretion, or [to] distinguish this murder from any other murder." 132 F. 3d, at 251. The Court of Appeals, relying on our decision in Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U. S. 356, 361-362 (1988), also was of the opinion that "[t]he use of the terms 'back-ground,' 'personal characteristics,' and 'unfamiliarity' without further definition or instruction left the jury with . . . open-ended discretion." 132 F. 3d, at 251 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Ensuring that a sentence of death is not so infected with bias or caprice is our "controlling objective when we examine eligibility and selection factors for vagueness." Tuilaepa v. California, 512 U. S. 967, 973 (1994). Our vagueness review, however, is "quite deferential." Ibid. As long as an aggravating factor has a core meaning that criminal juries should be capable of understanding, it will pass constitutional muster. Ibid. Assessed under this deferential standard, the factors challenged here surely are not vague. The jury should have had no difficulty understanding that factor 3(B) was designed to ask it to consider whether the victim was especially vulnerable to petitioner's attack. Nor should it have had difficulty comprehending that factor 3(C) asked it to consider the victim's personal traits and the effect of the crime on her family.14 Even if the factors as written
14 Petitioner argues that the term "personal characteristics" was so vague that the jury may have thought it could consider the victim's race and the petitioner's race under factor 3(C). In light of the remainder of the factor and the Government's argument with respect to the factor, we fail to see that possibility. In any event, in accordance with the Death
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