178
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
jury would have recommended a death sentence. We further note Virginia has expanded Simmons by allowing a defendant to obtain a Simmons instruction even where the defendant's future dangerousness is not at issue. Yarbrough v. Commonwealth, 258 Va. 347, 519 S. E. 2d 602 (1999). Likewise, Virginia has, after Ramdass' conviction, eliminated parole for capital defendants sentenced to life in prison. The combination of Yarbrough and the elimination of parole means that all capital defendants in Virginia now receive a Simmons instruction if they so desire. In circumstances like those presented here, even if some instruction had been given on the subject addressed by Simmons, the extent to which the trial court should have addressed the contingencies that could affect finality of the other convictions is not altogether clear. A full elaboration of the various ways to set a conviction aside or grant a new trial might not have been favorable to the petitioner. In all events the Constitution does not require the instruction that Ramdass now requests. The sentencing proceeding was not invalid by reason of its omission.
III
The Virginia Supreme Court's decision to deny petitioner relief was neither contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, Simmons. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit was required to deny him relief under 28 U. S. C. § 2254 (1994 ed. and Supp. III), and we affirm the judgment.
It is so ordered.
Justice O'Connor, concurring in the judgment.
In Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), a majority of the Court held that "[w]here the State puts the defendant's future dangerousness in issue, and the only available alternative sentence to death is life imprisonment without possibility of parole, due process entitles the defendant
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