Whether a death sentence may be carried out when defense counsel unreasonably fails to inform the jury of parole ineligibility under Simmons

QUESTION PRESENTED In Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154 (1994), this Court held that a capital defendant is entitled to inform the jury about his parole ineligibility when future dangerousness is at issue. In 2016, the Court summarily reversed the Arizona Supreme Court for refusing to allow a capital defendant to inform the jury about his parole ineligibility. See Lynch v. Arizona, 136 S. Ct. 1818(2016) (per curiam). In this case, the Arizona courts again upheld a death sentence even though the jury was never told that the capital defendant was ineligible for parole. The difference between this case and Lynch is that the jury here was never told because defense counsel never asked. The question presented is: Whether a death sentence may be carried out when defense counsel unreasonably fails to inform the jury of parole ineligibility under Simmons, 512 U.S. 154, resulting in prejudice. i LIST OF