248
Stevens, J., dissenting
IV
The Court repeatedly emphasizes the facts that the jury was told to consider the mitigating evidence and that the verdict forms expressly recite that the jury had given consideration to such evidence. As its refusal to find the first aggravator indicates, the jury surely did consider that evidence and presumably credited the testimony of petitioner and the other defense witnesses. But, as I have explained, see supra, at 240-241, there is a vast difference between considering that evidence as relevant to the question whether either aggravator had been established, and assuming that the jurors were sufficiently sophisticated to understand that it would be lawful for them to rely on that evidence as a basis for a life sentence even if they found the defendant "guilty of at least 1 of the alternatives." For that reason, the Court's reliance, ante, at 234-235, on the fact that the jurors affirmed their verdict when polled in open court is misplaced.
The most significant aspect of the polling of the jury is a notation by the court reporter that is unique. (At least I do not recall seeing a comparable notation in any of the transcripts of capital sentencing proceedings that I have reviewed during the past 24-plus years.) The transcript states that, as they were polled, "a majority of the jury members [were] in tears." App. 225. Given the unusually persuasive character of the mitigating evidence including petitioner's own testimony,9 it is at least "reasonable" to infer
9 The evidence showed, among other things, that before this incident Weeks had been a well-behaved student and a star high school athlete, id., at 130-133, who lived in a poor community, id., at 131-132, and who was raised by a well-meaning grandmother because of his mother's drug addiction, id., at 143, 167; that Weeks fell in with a bad crowd, id., at 150, 153, missing his chance for college when his girlfriend became pregnant and when he decided to stay and help her raise the child, id., at 109; and, as the jury learned in Weeks' own words, that he was extremely remorseful, id., at 127-128.
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