State v. McPherson

Faced with the indisputable fact that a jury, authorized by the trial court to do so “in fairness or mercy” in accordance with instructions and a fourth special issue, unanimously determined that imposition of the death penalty on appellant is not “a reasoned moral response to [his] background, his character and to the crime of which he was convicted,” a reviewing court is obliged to reject parochial rationales that would set aside the constitutional consequences of that decision.1 See and compare Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989);2 *851Jurek v. State, 522…