Cite as: 534 U. S. 246 (2002)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
That today's decision departs from Simmons is evident from the Court's rejection of the South Carolina Supreme Court's distinction between evidence regarding danger to fellow inmates and evidence regarding danger to society at large. Simmons itself recognized this distinction. Immediately after holding that the defendant should be allowed to show that "he never would be released on parole and thus, in his view, would not pose a future danger to society," 512 U. S., at 165 (emphasis added), Simmons noted that "[t]he State is free to argue that the defendant will pose a danger to others in prison and that executing him is the only means of eliminating the threat to the safety of other inmates or prison staff," id., at 165, n. 5. See also id., at 177 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment) (noting that where a parole ineligibility instruction is given, "the prosecution is free to argue that the defendant would be dangerous in prison"). This makes eminent good sense, for when the State argues that the defendant poses a threat to his cellmates or prison guards, it is no answer to say that he never will be released from prison.
But the test is no longer whether the State argues future dangerousness to society; the test is now whether evidence was introduced at trial that raises an "implication" of future dangerousness to society. Ante, at 253. It is difficult to envision a capital sentencing hearing where the State presents no evidence from which a juror might make such an inference. I would hazard a guess that many jurors found the sheer brutality of this crime—petitioner bound the hands of the victim (who was six months pregnant) behind her back, stabbed her over 30 times, slit her throat from ear to ear, and left dollar bills fastened to her bloodied body—indicative of petitioner's future threat to society. Yet all of this evidence was introduced not to prove future dangerousness, but to prove other elements required by South Carolina law, including the statutory aggravating factor that the murder was committed while in the commission of physical torture.
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