48
Opinion of the Court
We granted certiorari, 530 U. S. 1306 (2000), to determine whether the South Carolina Supreme Court properly held Simmons inapplicable to the State's current sentencing regime. We conclude that South Carolina's Supreme Court misinterpreted Simmons, and we therefore reverse that court's judgment.
II
South Carolina has consistently refused to inform the jury of a capital defendant's parole eligibility status.4 We first confronted this practice in Simmons. The South Carolina sentencing scheme then in effect, S. C. Code Ann. §§ 16-3- 20(A) and 24-21-610 (Supp. 1993), did not categorically preclude parole for capital defendants sentenced to life imprisonment, see supra, at 46-47, n. 3. Simmons, however, was parole ineligible under that scheme because of prior convictions for crimes of violence. See § 24-21-640; Simmons, 512 U. S., at 156 (plurality opinion); id., at 176 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment). Simmons' jury, in a note to the judge during the penalty phase deliberations, asked: "Does the imposition of a life sentence carry with it the possibility of parole?" Id., at 160 (plurality opinion). Over defense counsel's objection, the trial judge in Simmons instructed: "Do not consider parole or parole eligibility [in reaching your
4 At the time we decided Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), South Carolina was one of only three States—Pennsylvania and Virginia were the others—that "ha[d] a life-without-parole sentencing alternative to capital punishment for some or all convicted murderers but refuse[d] to inform sentencing juries of th[at] fact." Id., at 168, n. 8. Since Simmons, Virginia has abandoned this practice. Yarbrough v. Commonwealth, 258 Va. 347, 374, 519 S. E. 2d 602, 616 (1999) ("[W]e hold that in the penalty-determination phase of a trial where the defendant has been convicted of capital murder, in response to a proffer of a proper instruction from the defendant prior to submitting the issue of penalty-determination to the jury or where the defendant asks for such an instruction following an inquiry from the jury during deliberations, the trial court shall instruct the jury that the words 'imprisonment for life' mean 'imprisonment for life without possibility of parole.' ").
Page: Index Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007