James McKinney v. Charles Ryan

BEA, Circuit Judge,

dissenting, with whom KOZINSKI, GOULD, TALLMAN, and CALLAHAN, Circuit Judges, join:

A state cannot impose the death penalty unless the sentencer has considered all evidence submitted as to the defendant’s condition, character, and background. Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 113-15, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) (explaining that a sentencer may not “refuse to consider, as a matter of law, any relevant mitigating evidence”). As a result, defendants so sentenced usually and legitimately proffer mitigation evidence provoking sympathy in the hope it will persuade the…