796
Opinion of the Court
tified that Penry was a dangerous individual and likely to remain so. Two were the State's own witnesses. See App. 487, 557. The third was Dr. Price—the same defense witness whom the prosecutor had asked to read from the Peebles report. Before that recitation, Dr. Price had stated his own opinion that "[i]f [Penry] was in the free world, I would consider him dangerous." Id., at 392.
While the Peebles report was an effective rhetorical tool, it was by no means the key to the State's case on the question whether Penry was likely to commit future acts of violence. We therefore have considerable doubt that the admission of the Peebles report, even if erroneous, had a "substantial and injurious effect" on the verdict. Brecht v. Abrahamson, supra, at 637. Accordingly, we will not disturb the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' rejection of Penry's Fifth Amendment claim.
B
Penry also contends that the jury instructions given at his second sentencing hearing did not comport with our holding in Penry I because they did not provide the jury with a vehicle for expressing its reasoned moral response to the mitigating evidence of Penry's mental retardation and childhood abuse. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed. The court summarized Penry I as holding that when a defendant proffers "mitigating evidence that is not relevant to the special issues or that has relevance to the defendant's moral culpability beyond the scope of the special issues . . . the jury must be given a special instruction in order to allow it to consider and give effect to such evidence." 903 S. W. 2d, at 765. The court then stated that the supplemental jury instruction given at Penry's second sentencing hearing satisfied that mandate. Ibid.
The Texas court did not make the rationale of its holding entirely clear. On one hand, it might have believed that Penry I was satisfied merely by virtue of the fact that
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