Cite as: 532 U. S. 782 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Although Penry had offered extensive evidence that he was mentally retarded and had been severely abused as a child, the jury was never instructed that it could consider and give mitigating effect to that evidence in imposing sentence. Id., at 320. Nor was any of the three special issues broad enough in scope that the jury could consider and give effect to the mitigating evidence in answering the special issue. Id., at 322-325. While Penry's mental retardation was potentially relevant to the first special issue—whether he had acted deliberately—we found no way to be sure that the jurors fully considered the mitigating evidence as it bore on the broader question of Penry's moral culpability. Id., at 322-323. As to the second issue—whether Penry would be a future danger—the evidence of his mental retardation and history of abuse was "relevant only as an aggravating factor." Id., at 323 (emphasis in original). And the evidence was simply not relevant in a mitigating way to the third issue—whether Penry had unreasonably responded to any provocation. Id., at 324-325.
The comments of counsel also failed to clarify the jury's role. Defense counsel had urged the jurors to vote "no" on one of the special issues if they believed that Penry, because of the mitigating evidence, did not deserve to be put to death. The prosecutor, however, had reminded them of their "oath to follow the law and . . . answe[r] these questions based on the evidence and following the law." Id., at 325 (internal quotation marks omitted).
"In light of the prosecutor's argument, and . . . in the absence of instructions informing the jury that it could consider and give effect to the mitigating evidence of Penry's mental retardation and abused background by declining to impose the death penalty," we concluded that "a reasonable juror could well have believed that there was no vehicle for expressing the view that Penry did not deserve to be sentenced to death based upon his mitigating evidence." Id., at 326,
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