804
Opinion of Thomas, J.
at Penry's second sentencing hearing satisfied our mandate in Penry I, that determination was objectively unreasonable. Cf. Shafer v. South Carolina, ante, at 40, 50 (holding on direct review that the South Carolina Supreme Court "incorrectly limited" our holding in Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U. S. 154 (1994), because the court had mischaracterized "how the State's new [capital sentencing] scheme works"). The three special issues submitted to the jury were identical to the ones we found constitutionally inadequate as applied in Penry I. Although the supplemental instruction made mention of mitigating evidence, the mechanism it purported to create for the jurors to give effect to that evidence was ineffective and illogical. The comments of the court and counsel accomplished little by way of clarification. Any realistic assessment of the manner in which the supplemental instruction operated would therefore lead to the same conclusion we reached in Penry I: "[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." 492 U. S., at 326.
The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is therefore affirmed in part and reversed in part, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice Thomas, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Scalia join, concurring in Parts I, II, and III-A, and dissenting in Part III-B.
Two Texas juries have now deliberated and reasoned that Penry's brutal rape and murder of Pamela Carpenter warrants the death penalty under Texas law. And two opinions of this Court have now overruled those decisions on the ground that the sentencing courts should have said more about Penry's alleged mitigating evidence. Because I believe the most recent sentencing court gave the jurors
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