Ramdass v. Angelone, 530 U.S. 156, 29 (2000)

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184

RAMDASS v. ANGELONE

Stevens, J., dissenting

the possibility of parole. See Simmons, 512 U. S., at 178 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment) ("[T]hat the jury in this case felt compelled to ask whether parole was available shows that the jurors did not know whether or not a life-sentenced defendant will be released from prison"). More critically, three jurors said that "if the [jury] knew that [Ramdass] would have never gotten out of prison, they would have given him life rather than death." App. 95. Two of them stated "that would have been the result among all of [the jurors] beyond question, if they had had that information." Ibid. But "because they weren't told or given the answer . . . they all had a perception that he would be paroled." Ibid.3

After we remanded for reconsideration in light of Simmons, the Virginia Supreme Court held that case did not apply because Ramdass was not "ineligible for parole when the jury was considering his sentence." Ramdass v. Commonwealth, 248 Va. 518, 520, 450 S. E. 2d 360, 361 (1994). The applicable Virginia statute requires three strikes for a defendant to be parole ineligible. "At the time that the jury was considering Ramdass's penalty on January 30, 1993," the court held, Ramdass "was not ineligible for parole" because he had only two strikes against him—the Pizza Hut robbery and the instant capital murder. Ibid. Ramdass' robbery of the Domino's Pizza did not count as his third strike, even though the jury in that case had already found him guilty. Technically, under state law, that did not count as a "conviction," because Virginia's definition of "conviction" is not just a guilty verdict. Rather, a "conviction" also requires a piece of paper signed by the judge entering the verdict into

3 Once again, Simmons' applicability does not at all turn on whether this kind of evidence exists. I point it out only to emphasize how real the Simmons concerns are here. The plurality complains, in essence, that the evidence came in the form of an uncontested proffer rather than as a sworn affidavit. Ante, at 163. Again, neither Simmons' applicability nor the reality of the case is undercut by this quibble. The only thing that it proves is the plurality's penchant for formalism.

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