“ The indifferent shrug of the shoulders with which the Court answers the failure of its procedures in this case reveals the utter bankruptcy of its notion that a system of capital punishment can coexist with the Eighth Amendment. A death sentence that is dead wrong is no less so simply because its deficiency is not uncovered until the eleventh hour. ”

“ It may indeed be the case that a State cannot realistically accommodate postsentencing evidence casting doubt on a jury's finding of future dangerousness; but it hardly follows from this that it is Wilbert Evans who should bear the burden of this procedural limitation. In other words, if it is impossible to construct a system capable of accommodating all evidence relevant to a man's entitlement to be spared death-no matter when that evidence is disclosed-then it is the system, not the life of the man sentenced to death, that should be dispatched. ”

“ Wilbert Evans' plea to be spared from execution demonstrates the fallacy of this assumption. Notwithstanding the panoply of procedural protections afforded Evans by this Court's capital jurisprudence, Evans today faces an imminent execution that even the State of Virginia appears to concede is indefensible in light of the undisputed facts proffered by Evans. Because an execution under these circumstances highlights the inherently cruel and unusual character of capital punishment, I dissent. ”