418
Opinion of Rehnquist, C. J.
See 254 Va., at 26-27, 487 S. E. 2d, at 200. Because the Virginia Supreme Court did not rely on Lockhart to make its decision, and, instead, appropriately relied on Strickland, that court's adjudication was not "contrary to" this Court's clearly established precedent.
The question then becomes whether the Virginia Supreme Court's adjudication resulted from an "unreasonable application of" Strickland. In my view, it did not.
I, like the Virginia Supreme Court and the Federal Court of Appeals below, will assume without deciding that counsel's performance fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. As to the prejudice inquiry, I agree with the Court of Appeals that evidence showing that petitioner presented a future danger to society was overwhelming. As that court stated:
"The murder of Mr. Stone was just one act in a crime spree that lasted most of Williams's life. Indeed, the jury heard evidence that, in the months following the murder of Mr. Stone, Williams savagely beat an elderly woman, stole two cars, set fire to a home, stabbed a man during a robbery, set fire to the city jail, and confessed to having strong urges to choke other inmates and to break a fellow prisoner's jaw." 163 F. 3d 860, 868 (CA4 1998).
sentence,' " 254 Va., at 26, 487 S. E. 2d, at 200 (quoting Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 698-699 (1984)); "[w]hat the Supreme Court said in Strickland applies with full force here: 'Given the overwhelming aggravating factors, there is no reasonable probability that the omitted evidence would have changed the conclusion that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances and, hence, the sentence imposed;' " 254 Va., at 26, 487 S. E. 2d, at 200 (quoting Strickland, supra, at 700); and "[i]n conclusion, employing the language of Strickland, the prisoner 'has made no showing that the justice of his sentence was rendered unreliable by a breakdown in the adversary process caused by deficiencies in counsel's assistance. [The prisoner's] sentencing proceeding was not fundamentally unfair,' " 254 Va., at 27, 487 S. E. 2d, at 200 (quoting Strickland, supra, at 700).
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