Stephen Bright examines aggravating factors in capital sentencing, part of his Yale course Capital Punishment: Race, Poverty, and Disadvantage. Under current death penalty law, a jury must find at least one aggravating factor before death can be imposed, and such factors are then weighed against mitigating evidence in choosing between death and life imprisonment. Bright explains that these factors are meant to narrow eligibility to the worst crimes, then asks whether they actually do that work. He walks through examples of aggravating factors used across jurisdictions, testing whether their wording is precise enough to distinguish the most heinous murders or so vague that juries can apply them almost automatically. The lecture draws on assigned readings covering aggravating circumstances and fits within a broader course examining how race and poverty shape who ends up sentenced to death.