180
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
found guilty of the armed robbery of a Domino's Pizza restaurant, that verdict did not count as a prior conviction under § 53.1-151(B1) because judgment had not yet been entered on that verdict at the time of Ramdass' capital sentencing proceeding. 248 Va., at 520, 450 S. E. 2d, at 361.
For the reasons explained in the plurality opinion, the Virginia Supreme Court's decision was neither contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, our holding in Simmons. Whether a defendant is entitled to inform the jury that he is parole ineligible is ultimately a question of federal law, but we look to state law to determine a defendant's parole status. In Simmons, the defendant had "conclusively establish[ed]" that he was parole ineligible at the time of sentencing, and the "prosecution did not challenge or question [his] parole ineligibility." 512 U. S., at 158. Ramdass, however, was not ineligible for parole when the jury considered his sentence as the relevant court had not yet entered the judgment of conviction for the Domino's Pizza robbery. Were the entry of judgment a purely ministerial act under Virginia law, in the sense that it was foreordained, I would agree with petitioner that "the only available alternative sentence to death [was] life imprisonment without possibility of parole." Id., at 178 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment). Such circumstances would be "materially indistinguishable" from the facts of Simmons. See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S., at 405. It therefore would have been "contrary to" Simmons for the Virginia Supreme Court to hold that petitioner was not entitled to inform the jury that he would be parole ineligible. See ibid. Where all that stands between a defendant and parole ineligibility under state law is a purely minis-terial act, Simmons entitles the defendant to inform the jury of that ineligibility, either by argument or instruction, even if he is not technically "parole ineligible" at the moment of sentencing.
Such was not the case here, however. As the plurality opinion explains, the entry of judgment following a criminal
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