Mr. Muhammad's lawyers tried to weed out people who might feel that the killings were so horrible that death would be the only acceptable punishment -- without regard to mitigating evidence in the sentencing phase.
Mr. Penry's case was the subject of a 1989 Supreme Court decision that reversed his first death sentence because the jury had not been allowed to fully consider mitigating evidence about his history and mental impairment.
What you need to do is submit a "mitigating evidence" form, which explains what has happened.
Romano argues that, as in capital cases, his clients deserve to ask for lesser sentences based on "mitigating evidence" — often of child abuse, mental illness or mental retardation.
In his argument urging the court to declare that a defendant cannot bar mitigating evidence, one of Mr. LaValle's lawyers, Daniel R. Williams, said many defendants who faced the prospect of execution were "damaged individuals".
Capital-case judges aren't officially allowed to add aggravating factors to the jury's list, but they often do so obliquely, by rebutting claims of mitigating evidence with subjective assessments not prescribed by law.
