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Sawyer Vs Whitley - Citation 107310 - Court Judgment | LegalCrystal
Sawyer Vs. Whitley - Court Judgment
LegalCrystal Citation legalcrystal.com/107310
Decided On Feb-25-1992
Case Number 505 U.S. 333
Respondent Whitley
sawyer v. whitley - 505 u.s. 333 (1992) october term, 1991 syllabus sawyer v. whitley, warden certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit no. 91-6382. argued february 25, 1992-decided june 22,1992 a louisiana jury convicted petitioner sawyer and sentenced him to death for a murder in which the victim was beaten, scalded with boiling water, and set afire. his conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal, and his petitions for state postconviction relief, as well as his first petition for federal habeas relief, were denied. in a second federal habeas petition, the district court barred as abusive or successive sawyer's claims, inter alia, that the police failed to produce exculpatory evidence-evidence challenging a.....
Sawyer v. Whitley - 505 U.S. 333 (1992)
A Louisiana jury convicted petitioner Sawyer and sentenced him to death for a murder in which the victim was beaten, scalded with boiling water, and set afire. His conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal, and his petitions for state postconviction relief, as well as his first petition for federal habeas relief, were denied. In a second federal habeas petition, the District Court barred as abusive or successive Sawyer's claims, inter alia, that the police failed to produce exculpatory evidence-evidence challenging a prosecution witness' credibility and a child witness' statements that Sawyer had tried to prevent an accomplice from setting fire to the victim-in violation of his due process rights under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 ; and that his trial counsel's failure to introduce mental health records as mitigating evidence in his trial's sentencing phase constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Sawyer had not shown cause for failure to raise his claims in his earlier petition, and that it could not otherwise reach the claims' merits because he had not shown that he was "actually innocent" of the death penalty under Louisiana law.
(a) Generally, a habeas petitioner must show cause and prejudice before a court will reach the merits of a successive, abusive, or defaulted claim. Even if he cannot meet this standard, a court may hear the merits of such claims if failure to hear them would result in a miscarriage of justice. See, e. g., Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U. S. 436 . The miscarriage of justice exception applies where a petitioner is "actually innocent" of the crime of which he was convicted or the penalty which was imposed. While it is not easy to define what is meant by "actually innocent" of the death penalty, the exception is very narrow and must be determined by relatively objective standards. Pp. 338-341.
(b) In order to avoid arbitrary and capricious impositions of the death sentence, States have adopted narrowing factors to limit the class of offenders upon which the death penalty may be imposed, as evidenced
by Louisiana's definition of capital murder as something more than intentional killing and its requirement that before a jury may recommend death, it must determine that at least one of a list of statutory aggravating factors exists. Once eligibility for the death penalty is established, however, the emphasis shifts from narrowing the class of eligible defendants by objective factors to individualized consideration of a particular defendant by the introduction of mitigating evidence. Within this framework, the Court of Appeals applied the proper standard to determine "actual innocence" when it required Sawyer to base his showing that no reasonable juror would have found him eligible for the death penalty under Louisiana law on the elements of the crime itself and the existence of aggravating circumstances, but not the existence of additional mitigating evidence that was not introduced as a result of a claimed constitutional error. This standard hones in on the objective factors that must be shown to exist before a defendant is eligible to have the death penalty imposed. The adoption of a stricter definition, which would limit any showing to the elements of the crime, is rejected, since, by stating in Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S. 527 , 537, that actual innocence could mean innocent of the death penalty, this Court suggested a more expansive meaning than simply innocence of the capital offense itself. Also rejected is a more lenient definition, which would allow the showing to extend beyond the elements of the crime and the aggravating factors, to include mitigating evidence which bears, not on the defendant's eligibility to receive the death penalty, but only on the ultimate discretionary decision between that penalty and life imprisonment. Including mitigating factors would make actual innocence mean little more than what is already required to show prejudice for purposes of securing habeas relief and would broaden the inquiry beyond what is a narrow exception to the principle of finality. Pp.341-347.
2. Sawyer has failed to show that he is actually innocent of the death penalty to which he has been sentenced. The psychological evidence allegedly kept from the jury does not relate to his guilt or innocence of the crime or to the aggravating factors found by the jury-that the murder was committed in the course of an aggravated arson, and that it was especially cruel, atrocious, or heinous-which made him eligible for the death penalty. Nor can it be said that had this evidence been before the jury a reasonable juror would not have found both of the aggravating factors. The evidence allegedly kept from the jury due to an alleged Brady violation also fails to show actual innocence. Latterday impeachment evidence seldom, if ever, makes a clear and convincing showing that no reasonable juror would have believed the heart of the witness' account. While the statement that Sawyer did not set fire to the victim goes to the jury's finding of aggravated arson and, thus, to
945 F.2d 812 , affirmed.
REHNQUIST, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WHITE, SCALIA, KENNEDY, SOUTER, and THOMAS, JJ., joined. BLACKMUN, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 350. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which BLACKMUN and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined, post, p. 360.
1 The facts are more fully recounted in the opinion of the Louisiana Supreme Court affirming petitioner's conviction and sentence. State v. Sawyer, 422 So. 2d 95, 97-98 (1982).
Sawyer's conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal by the Louisiana Supreme Court. State v. Sawyer, 422 So. 2d 95 (1982). We granted certiorari, and vacated and remanded with instructions to reconsider in light of Zant v. Stephens, 462 U. S. 862 (1983). Sawyer v. Louisiana, 463 U. S. 1223 (1983). On remand, the Louisiana Supreme Court reaffirmed the sentence. Sawyer v. State, 442 So. 2d 1136 (1983), cert. denied, 466 U. S. 931 (1984). Petitioner's first petition for state postconviction relief was denied. Louisiana ex rel. Sawyer v. Maggio, 479 So. 2d 360, reconsideration denied, 480 So. 2d 313 (La. 1985).3 In 1986, Sawyer filed his first federal habeas petition, raising 18 claims, all of which were denied on the merits. See Sawyer v. Butler, 848 F.2d 582 (CA5 1988), aff'd on rehearing en bane, 881 F.2d 1273 (CA5 1989). We again granted certiorari and affirmed the Court of Appeals' denial of relief. Sawyer v. Smith, supra. 4
4 In this earlier review, we held that Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U. S. 320 (1985), could not be applied retroactively to petitioner's case under Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989).
Unless a habeas petitioner shows cause and prejudice, see Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. 72 (1977), a court may not reach the merits of: (a) successive claims that raise grounds identical to grounds heard and decided on the merits in a previous petition, Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U. S. 436 (1986); (b) new claims, not previously raised, which constitute an abuse of the writ, McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467 (1991); or (c) procedurally defaulted claims in which the petitioner failed to follow applicable state procedural rules in raising the claims, Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478 (1986). These cases are premised on our concerns for the finality of state judgments of conviction and the "significant costs of federal habeas review." McCleskey, supra, at 490-491; see, e. g., Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107 , 126-128 (1982).
We have previously held that even if a state prisoner cannot meet the cause and prejudice standard, a federal court may hear the merits of the successive claims if the failure to hear the claims would constitute a "miscarriage of justice." In a trio of 1986 decisions, we elaborated on the miscarriage of justice, or "actual innocence," exception. As we explained in Kuhlmann v. Wilson, supra, the exception developed from the language of the federal habeas statute, which, prior to 1966, allowed successive claims to be denied without a hearing if the judge were "satisfied that the ends of justice will not be served by such inquiry." Id., at 448. We held that despite the removal of this statutory language from 28 U. s. C. § 2244(b) in 1966, the miscarriage of justice exception would allow successive claims to be heard if the petitioner "establish[es] that under the probative evidence he has a colorable claim of factual innocence." Kuhlmann, supra, at 454.5 In the second of these cases we held that the actual innocence exception also applies to procedurally defaulted claims. Murray v. Carrier, supra. 6
6We stated that the merits of a defaulted claim could be reached "in an extraordinary case, where a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent .... " Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S., at 496.
The present case requires us to further amplify the meaning of "actual innocence" in the setting of capital punishment. A prototypical example of "actual innocence" in a colloquial sense is the case where the State has convicted the wrong person of the crime. Such claims are of course regularly made on motions for new trial after conviction in both state and federal courts, and quite regularly denied because the evidence adduced in support of them fails to meet the rigorous standards for granting such motions. But in rare instances it may turn out later, for example, that another person has credibly confessed to the crime, and it is evident
7 While we recognize this as a fact on the basis of our own experience with applications for stays of execution in capital cases, we regard it as a regrettable fact. We of course do not in the least condone, but instead condemn, any efforts on the part of habeas petitioners to delay their filings until the last minute with a view to obtaining a stay because the district court will lack time to give them the necessary consideration before the scheduled execution. A court may resolve against such a petitioner doubts and uncertainties as to the sufficiency of his submission. See Gomez v. United States Dist. Gourt for Northern Dist. of Gal., 503 U. S. 653 (1992) (per curiam).
But once eligibility for the death penalty has been established to the satisfaction of the jury, its deliberations assume a different tenor. In a series of cases beginning with Lock ett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 , 604 (1978), we have held that the
9 At the time of petitioner's trial La. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 905.3 (West 1984), provided: "A sentence of death shall not be imposed unless the jury finds beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one statutory aggravating circumstance exists and, after consideration of any mitigating circumstances, recommends that the sentence of death be imposed."
The most lenient of the three possibilities would be to allow the showing of "actual innocence" to extend not only to the elements of the crime, but also to the existence of aggravating factors, and to mitigating evidence that bore not on the defendant's eligibility to receive the death penalty, but only on the ultimate discretionary decision between the death penalty and life imprisonment. This, in effect, is what petitioner urges upon us. He contends that actual innocence of the death penalty exists where "there is a 'fair probability' that the admission of false evidence, or the preclusion of true mitigating evidence, [caused by a constitutional error] resulted in a sentence of death." Brief for Petitioner 18 (cita-
tion and footnote omitted).lO Although petitioner describes his standard as narrower than that adopted by the Eighth and Ninth Circuits,l1 in reality it is only more closely related to the facts of his case in which he alleges that constitutional error kept true mitigating evidence from the jury. The crucial consideration, according to petitioner, is whether due to constitutional error the sentencer was presented with "'a factually inaccurate sentencing profile'" of the petitioner. Brief for Petitioner 15, n. 21, quoting Johnson v. Singletary, 938 F.2d 1166 , 1200 (CAll 1991) (en bane) (Anderson, J., dissenting).
The Eighth Circuit has adopted a similar test: "'In the penalty-phase context, this exception will be available if the federal constitutional error alleged probably resulted in a verdict of death against one whom the jury would otherwise have sentenced to life imprisonment.''' Stokes v. Armontrout, 893 F.2d 152 , 156 (1989), quoting Smith v. Armontrout, 888 F.2d 530 , 545 (1989).
But we reject petitioner's submission that the showing should extend beyond these elements of the capital sentence to the existence of additional mitigating evidence. In the first place, such an extension would mean that "actual innocence" amounts to little more than what is already required to show "prejudice," a necessary showing for habeas relief for many constitutional errors. See, e. g., United States v. Bagley, 473 U. S. 667 , 682 (1985); Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 , 694 (1984). If federal habeas review of capital sentences is to be at all rational, petitioner must show something more in order for a court to reach the merits of his claims on a successive habeas petition than he would have had to show to obtain relief on his first habeas petition.13
13 If a showing of actual innocence were reduced to actual prejudice, it would allow the evasion of the cause and prejudice standard which we have held also acts as an "exception" to a defaulted, abusive, or successive claim. In practical terms a petitioner would no longer have to show cause, contrary to our prior cases. McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467 , 494495 (1991); Carrier, 477 U. S., at 493.
14 The "clearly-erroneous" standard suggested by JUSTICE STEVENS' opinion concurring in the judgment suffers from this weakness and others as well. The term "clearly erroneous" derives from Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a), which provides that "findings of fact [in actions tried without a jury] shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous." JUSTICE STEVENS wrenches the term out of this context-where it applies to written factual findings made by a trial judge-and would apply it to the imposition of the death sentence by a jury or judge. Not only is the latter determination different both quantitatively and qualitatively from a finding of fact in a bench trial, but JUSTICE STEVENS would not even bring with the term its established meaning in reviewing factfindings in bench trials. We held in United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U. S. 364 , 395 (1948), and reaffirmed in Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U. S. 564 , 573 (1985), that "'[a] finding is "clearly erroneous" when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.''' But JUSTICE STEVENS would apparently equate it with the standard traditionally used for review of jury verdicts-that no reasonable sentencer could have imposed the death penalty. Post, at 371. Cf. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 ,316-318 (1979).
"Thus, a petitioner may make a colorable showing that he is actually innocent of the death penalty by presenting evidence that an alleged constitutional error implicates all of the aggravating factors found to be present by the sentencing body. That is, but for the alleged constitutional error, the sentencing body could not have found any aggravating factors and thus the petitioner was ineligible for the death penalty. In other words, the petitioner must show that absent the alleged constitutional error, the jury would have lacked the discretion to impose the death penalty; that is, that he is ineligible for the death penalty." Johnson v. Singletary, 938 F. 2d, at 1183 (emphasis in original).
17 In the same category are the affidavits from petitioner's family members attesting to the deprivation and abuse suffered by petitioner as a child. 2 App. 571-584.
Even considering the affidavit of Wayne Shano, it cannot be said that no reasonable juror would have found that petitioner committed the aggravated arson, given Cynthia Shana's testimony as to petitioner's statements to Lane on the day of the murder and petitioner's fingerprints on the can of lighter fluid.
The Court repeatedly has recognized that principles of fundamental fairness underlie the writ of habeas corpus. See Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107 , 126 (1982); Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1 , 17-18 (1963). Even as the Court has erected unprecedented and unwarranted barriers to the federal judiciary's review of the merits of claims that state prisoners failed properly to present to the state courts, or failed to raise in their first federal habeas petitions, or previously presented to the federal courts for resolution, it consistently has acknowledged that exceptions to these rules of unreviewability must exist to prevent violations of fundamental fairness. See Engle, 456 U. S., at 135 (principles of finality and comity "must yield to the imperative of correcting a fundamentally unjust incarceration"). Thus, the Court has held, federal courts may review procedurally defaulted, abusive, or successive claims absent a showing of cause and
prejudice if the failure to do so would thwart the "ends of justice," see Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U. S. 436 , 455 (1986) (plurality opinion), or work a "fundamental miscarriage of justice," see Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478 , 495-496 (1986); Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S. 527 , 537-538 (1986); Dugger v. Adams, 489 U. S. 401 , 412, n. 6 (1989); McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467 , 493-494 (1991).
By the traditional understanding of habeas corpus, a "fundamental miscarriage of justice" occurs whenever a conviction or sentence is secured in violation of a federal constitutional right. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254(a) (federal courts "shall entertain" habeas petitions from state prisoners who allege that they are "in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States"); Smith, 477 U. S., at 543-544 (STEVENS, J., dissenting). Justice Holmes explained that the concern of a federal court in reviewing the validity of a conviction and death sentence on a writ of habeas corpus is "solely the question whether [the petitioner's] constitutional rights have been preserved." Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U. S. 86 , 88 (1923).
In a trio of 1986 decisions, however, the Court ignored these traditional teachings and, out of a purported concern for state sovereignty, for the preservation of state resources, and for the finality of state-court judgments, shifted the focus of federal habeas review of procedurally defaulted, successive, or abusive claims away from the preservation of constitutional rights to a fact-based inquiry into the petitioner's innocence or guilt. See Wilson, 477 U. S., at 454 (plurality opinion) ("[T]he 'ends of justice' require federal courts to entertain [successive] petitions only where the prisoner supplements his constitutional claim with a colorable showing of factual innocence"); Carrier, 477 U. S., at 496 ("[I]n an extraordinary case, where a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent, a federal habeas court may grant the writ even in the absence of a showing of cause for the procedural default");
IJUSTICE STEVENS explained in his dissenting opinion in Smith, 477 U. S., at 551-553, that the introduction of the inculpatory statement clearly violated Smith's rights as established in Estelle v. Smith, 451 U. S. 454 (1981).
Just last Term, in McCleskey v. Zant, the Court again described the "fundamental miscarriage of justice" exception as a "'safeguard against compelling an innocent man to suffer an unconstitutional loss of liberty,'" 499 U. S., at 495 (quoting Stone v. Powell, 428 U. S. 465 , 491-492, n. 31 (1976)). Although the District Court granted relief to McCleskey on his claim that state authorities deliberately had elicited inculpatory admissions from him in violation of his Sixth
As an initial matter, the Court's focus on factual innocence is inconsistent with Congress' grant of habeas corpus jurisdiction, pursuant to which federal courts are instructed to entertain petitions from state prisoners who allege that they are held "in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States." 28 U. S. C. §2254(a). The jurisdictional grant contains no support for the Court's decision to narrow the reviewing authority and obligation of the federal courts to claims of factual innocence. See also 28 U. S. C. § 2243 ("The court shall ... dispose of the matter as law and justice require"). In addition, the actual innocence standard requires a reviewing federal court, unnaturally, to
Nowhere is this single-minded focus on actual innocence more misguided than in a case where a defendant alleges a constitutional error in the sentencing phase of a capital trial. The Court's ongoing struggle to give meaning to "innocence of death" simply reflects the inappropriateness of the inquiry. See Smith, 477 U. S., at 537; Adams, 489 U. S., at 412, n. 6; ante, at 340. "Guilt or innocence is irrelevant in that context; rather, there is only a decision made by representatives of the community whether the prisoner shall live or die." Wilson, 477 U. S., at 471-472, n. 7 (Brennan, J., dissenting).
Only by returning to the federal courts' central and traditional function on habeas review, evaluating claims of constitutional error, can the Court ensure that the ends of justice are served and that fundamental miscarriages of justice do not go unremedied. The Court would do well to heed Justice Black's admonition: "[I]t is never too late for courts in habeas corpus proceedings to look straight through procedural screens in order to prevent forfeiture of life or liberty in flagrant defiance of the Constitution." Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443 , 554 (1953) (dissenting opinion).2
When I was on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, I once observed, in the course of reviewing a death sentence on a writ of habeas corpus, that the decisional process in a capital case is "particularly excruciating" for someone "who is not personally convinced of the rightness of capital punishment and who questions it as an effective deterrent." Maxwell v. Bishop, 398 F.2d 138 , 153-154 (1968), vacated, 398 U. S. 262 (1970). At the same time, however, I stated my then belief that "the advisability of capital punishment is a policy matter ordinarily to be resolved by the legislature." Id., at 154. Four years later, as a Member of this Court, I echoed those sentiments in my separate dissenting opinion in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U. S. 238 , 405 (1972). Although I reiterated my personal distaste for the
2 Notwithstanding my view that the Court has erred in narrowing the concept of a "fundamental miscarriage of justice" to cases of "actual innocence," I have attempted faithfully to apply the "actual innocence" standard in prior cases. See, e. g., Dugger v. Adams, 489 U. S. 401 , 424, n. 15 (1989) (dissenting opinion). I therefore join JUSTICE STEVENS' analysis of the "actual innocence" standard and his application of that standard to the facts of this case. See post, p. 360.
Only last Term I had occasion to lament the Court's continuing "crusade to erect petty procedural barriers in the path of any state prisoner seeking review of his federal constitutional claims" and its transformation of "the duty to protect federal rights into a self-fashioned abdication." Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 , 759, 761 (1991) (dissenting opinion). This Term has witnessed the continued narrowing of the avenues of relief available to federal habeas petitioners seeking redress of their constitutional claims. See, e. g., Keeney v. Tamayo-Reyes, 504 U. S. 1 (1992) (overruling in part Townsend v. Sain, 372 U. S. 293 (1963)). It has witnessed, as well, the execution of two victims of the "new habeas," Warren McCleskey and Roger Keith Coleman.
Warren McCleskey's case seemed the archetypal "fundamental miscarriage of justice" that the federal courts are charged with remedying. As noted above, McCleskey dem-
The execution of Roger Keith Coleman is no less an affront to principles of fundamental fairness. Last Term, the Court refused to review the merits of Coleman's claims by effectively overruling, at Coleman's expense, precedents holding that state-court decisions are presumed to be based on the merits (and therefore, are subject to federal habeas review) unless they explicitly reveal that they were based on state procedural grounds. See Coleman, 501 U. S., at 762-764 (dissenting opinion). Moreover, the Court's refusal last month to grant a temporary stay of execution so that the lower courts could conduct a hearing into Coleman's wellsupported claim that he was innocent of the underlying offense demonstrates the resounding hollowness of the Court's professed commitment to employ the "fundamental miscarriage of justice exception" as a "safeguard against compelling an innocent man to suffer an unconstitutional loss of liberty." McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S., at 495 (internal quotation marks omitted). See Coleman v. Thompson, 504 U. S. 188 , 189 (1992) (opinion dissenting from denial of stay of execution).
As I review the state of this Court's capital jurisprudence, I thus am left to wonder how the ever-shrinking authority of
the federal courts to reach and redress constitutional errors affects the legitimacy of the death penalty itself. Since Gregg v. Georgia, the Court has upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty where sufficient procedural safeguards exist to ensure that the State's administration of the penalty is neither arbitrary nor capricious. See 428 U. S. 153 , 189, 195 (1976) (joint opinion); Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 , 601 (1978). At the time those decisions issued, federal courts possessed much broader authority than they do today to address claims of constitutional error on habeas review and, therefore, to examine the adequacy of a State's capital scheme and the fairness and reliability of its decision to impose the death penalty in a particular case. The more the Court constrains the federal courts' power to reach the constitutional claims of those sentenced to death, the more the Court undermines the very legitimacy of capital punishment itself.
Only 10 years ago, the Court reemphasized that "[t]he writ of habeas corpus indisputably holds an honored position in our jurisprudence. Tracing its roots deep into English common law, it claims a place in Art. I of our Constitution. Today, as in prior centuries, the writ is a bulwark against convictions that violate 'fundamental fairness.' Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. [72,] 97 [(1977)] (STEVENS, J., concurring)." Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107 , 126 (1982). It is this centrality of "fundamental fairness" that has led the Court to hold that habeas review of a defaulted, successive, or abusive claim is available, even absent a showing of cause, if failure to consider the claim would result in a fundamental miscarriage of justice. See Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1 , 17-18 (1963); Engle, 456 U. S., at 135.
In Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478 , 495, 496 (1986), the Court ruled that the concept of "fundamental miscarriage of justice" applies to those cases in which the defendant was
Nowhere is this more true than in capital sentencing proceedings. Because the death penalty is qualitatively and morally different from any other penalty, "[i]t is of vital importance to the defendant and to the community that any decision to impose the death sentence be, and appear to be, the consequence of scrupulously fair procedures." Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S. 527 , 545-546 (1986) (STEVENS, J., dissenting). Accordingly, the ends of justice dictate that "[w]hen a condemned prisoner raises a substantial, colorable Eighth Amendment violation, there is a special obligation ... to consider whether the prisoner's claim would render his sentencing proceeding fundamentally unfair." Id., at 546.
Thus the Court's first and most basic error today is that it asks the wrong question. Charged with averting manifest miscarriages of justice, the Court instead narrowly recasts
As noted above, in Murray v. Carrier, the Court held that in those cases in which "a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent, a federal habeas court may grant the writ even in the absence of a showing of cause for the procedural default." 477 U. S., at 496 (emphasis added). The Court has since frequently confirmed this standard. See, e. g., Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 , 748 (1991); Dugger v. Adams, 489 U. S. 401, 412, n. 6 (1989); Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 , 313 (1989). In subsequent decisions, both those involving "innocence of the offense" and those involving "innocence of the death sentence," the Court has employed the same standard of proof. For example, in Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S. 527
Equally significant, this "probably resulted" standard is well calibrated to the manifest miscarriage of justice exception. Not only does the standard respect the competing demands of finality and fundamental fairness, it also fits squarely within our habeas jurisprudence. In general, a federal court may entertain a defaulted, successive, or abusive claim if a prisoner demonstrates cause and prejudice. See generally McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467 , 493-495 (1991). To show "prejudice," a defendant must demonstrate "a reasonable probability that, but for [the alleged] erro[r], the result of the proceeding would have been different." Strickland, 466 U. S., at 694; see also United States v. Bag-
ley, 473 U. S. 667 , 682, 685 (1985). The "miscarriage of justice" exception to this general rule requires a more substantial showing: The defendant must not simply demonstrate a reasonable probability of a different result, he must show that the alleged error more likely than not created a manifest miscarriage of justice. This regime makes logical sense. If a defendant cannot show cause and can only show a "reasonable probability" of a different outcome, a federal court should not hear his defaulted, successive, or abusive claim. Only in the "exceptional case" in which a defendant can show that the alleged constitutional error "probably resulted" in the conviction (or sentencing) of one innocent of the offense (or the death sentence) should the court hear the defendant's claim.
"The function of a standard of proof ... is to 'instruct the factfinder concerning the degree of confidence our society thinks he should have in the correctness of factual conclusions for a particular type of adjudication.' ... The standard serves to allocate the risk of error between the litigants and to indicate the relative importance attached to the ultimate decision." Addington v. Texas, 441 U. S. 418 , 423 (1979) (citation omitted). Neither of these considerations
First, there is no basis for requiring a federal court to be virtually certain that the defendant is actually ineligible for the death penalty before merely entertaining his claim. We have required a showing by clear and convincing evidence in several contexts: For example, the medical facts underlying a civil commitment must be established by this standard, Addington v. Texas, 441 U. S. 418 (1979), as must "actual malice" in a libel suit brought by a public official. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254 , 279-280 (1964); see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U. S. 242 (1986). And we have required a related showing in cases involving deportation, Woodby v. INS, 385 U. S. 276 , 285-286 (1966), and denaturalization, Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U. S. 118 , 125 (1943). In each of these contexts, the interests of the nonmoving party were truly substantial: personal liberty in Addington, freedom of expression in New York Times, residence in Woodby, and citizenship in Schneiderman. In my opinion, the State's interest in finality in a capital prosecution is not nearly as great as any of these interests. Indeed, it is important to remember that "innocence of the death sentence" is not a standard for staying or vacating a death sentence, but merely a standard for determining whether or not a court should reach the merits of a defaulted claim. The State's interest in "finality" in this context certainly does not warrant a "clear and convincing" evidentiary standard.
Nor is there any justification for allocating the risk of error to fall so severely upon the capital defendant or attaching greater importance to the initial sentence than to the issue of whether that sentence is appropriate. The States themselves have declined to attach such weight to capital sentences: Most States provide plain-error review for defaulted claims in capital cases. See Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S., at 548-550, n. 20 (collecting authorities). In this regard, the
The Court recognizes that the proper definition of "innocence of the death sentence" must involve a reweighing of the evidence and must focus on the sentencer's likely evaluation of that evidence. Thus, the Court directs federal courts to look to whether a "reasonable juror would have found the petitioner eligible for the death penalty." Ante, at 336 (emphasis added). Nevertheless, the Court inexplicably limits this inquiry in two ways. First, the Court holds that courts should consider only evidence concerning aggravating factors. As demonstrated below, this limitation is wholly without foundation and neglects the central role of mitigating evidence in capital sentencing proceedings. Second, the
It is well established that, "in capital cases, the sentencer may not refuse to consider or be precluded from considering any relevant mitigating evidence." Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U. S. 393 , 394 (1987) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Yet in ascribing a narrow, eligibility-based meaning to "innocence of the death sentence" the Court neglects this rudimentary principle.
As the Court recognizes, a single general directive animates and informs our capital-punishment jurisprudence: "[T]he death penalty [may not] be imposed under sentencing procedures that creat[e] a substantial risk that [the death penalty] would be inflicted in an arbitrary and capricious manner." Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153 , 188 (1976) (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and STEVENS, JJ.). As applied and developed over the years, this constitutional requirement has yielded two central principles. First, a sentencing scheme must "genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty." Zant v. Stephens, 462 U. S. 862 , 877 (1983). Second, the sentencer must "not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death." Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 586 , 604 (1978) (opinion of Burger, C. J.) (emphasis in original). Although these principles-one narrowing the relevant class, the other broadening the scope of considered evidence-seemingly point in opposite directions, in fact both serve the same end: ensuring that a capital sentence is the product of individualized and reasoned moral decisionmaking.
Moreover, the Court's holding also clashes with the theory underlying our capital-punishment jurisprudence. The nonarbitrariness-and therefore the constitutionality-of the death penalty rests on individualized sentencing determinations. See generally California v. Brown, 479 U. S. 538 , 544-546 (1987) (O'CONNOR, J., concurring). This is the dif-
1 See also Boyde v. California, 494 U. S. 370 (1990); McKoy v. North Carolina, 494 U. S. 433 (1990); Franklin v. Lynaugh, 487 U. S. 164 (1988); Mills v. Maryland, 486 U. S. 367 (1988); Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U. S. 393 (1987); Bell v. Ohio, 438 U. S. 637 (1978).
ference between the guided-discretion regime upheld in Gregg v. Georgia and the mandatory death-sentence regime invalidated in Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U. S. 325 (1976). The Roberts scheme was constitutionally infirm because it left no room for individualized moral judgments, because it failed to provide the sentencer with a "meaningful opportunity [to] conside[r the] mitigating factors presented by the circumstances of the particular crime or by the attributes of the individual offender." Id., at 333-334 (opinion of Stewart, Powell, and STEVENS, JJ.). The Court's definition of "innocence of the death sentence" is like the statutory scheme in Roberts: It focuses solely on whether the defendant is in a class eligible for the death penalty and disregards the equally important question whether" 'death is the appropriate punishment in [the defendant's] specific case.''' Zant v. Stephens, 462 U. S., at 885 (quoting Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U. S. 280 , 305 (1976)).2
2 The Court rejects the argument that federal courts should also consider mitigating evidence because consideration of such evidence involves the "far more difficult task [of] assess[ing] how jurors would have reacted to additional showings." Ante, at 346. I see no such difference between consideration of aggravating and mitigating circumstances; both require the federal courts to reconsider and anticipate a sentencer's decision: By the Court's own standard federal courts must determine whether a "reasonable juror would have found" certain facts. Thus, the Court's reason for barring federal courts from considering mitigating circumstances applies equally to the standard that it endorses. Its exclusion of mitigating evidence from consideration is therefore wholly arbitrary.
In my opinion, the "innocence of the death sentence" standard must take into account several factors. First, such a standard must reflect both of the basic principles of our capital-punishment jurisprudence. The standard must recognize both the need to define narrowly the class of "deatheligible" defendants and the need to define broadly the scope of mitigating evidence permitted the capital sentencer. Second, the "innocence of the death sentence" standard should also recognize the distinctive character of the capital sentencing decision. While the question of innocence or guilt of the offense is essentially a question of fact, the choice between life imprisonment and capital punishment is both a question of underlying fact and a matter of reasoned moral judgment. Thus, there may be some situations in which, although the defendant remains technically "eligible" for the death sentence, nonetheless, in light of all of the evidence,
These requirements are best met by a standard that provides that a defendant is "innocent of the death sentence" only if his capital sentence is clearly erroneous. This standard encompasses several types of error. A death sentence is clearly erroneous if, taking into account all of the available evidence, the sentencer lacked the legal authority to impose such a sentence because, under state law, the defendant was not eligible for the death penalty. Similarly, in the case of a "jury override," a death sentence is clearly erroneous if, taking into account all of the evidence, the evidentiary prerequisites for that override (as established by state law) were not met. See, e. g., Johnson v. Singletary, 938 F.2d 1166 ,1194-1195 (CA111991) (Tjofiat, C. J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (concluding that the sentencing "judge, as a matter of law, could not have sentenced the petitioner to death" because there was insufficient evidence to meet the jury-override standard established in Tedder v. State, 322 So. 2d 908, 910 (Fla. 1975)). A death sentence is also clearly erroneous under a "balancing" regime if, in view of all of the evidence, mitigating circumstances so far outweighed aggravating circumstances that no reasonable sentencer would have imposed the death penalty. Cf. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 , 316-318 (1979). Such a case might arise if constitutional error either precluded the defendant from demonstrating that aggravating circumstances did not obtain or precluded the sentencer's consideration of important mitigating evidence.
Moreover, the "clearly-erroneous" standard is duly protective of the State's legitimate interests in finality and respectful of the systemic and institutional costs of successive habeas litigation. The standard is stringent: If the sentence "is plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety" it is not clearly erroneous "even though [the court is] convinced that had it been sitting as the [sentencer], it would have weighed the evidence differently." Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U. S. 564 , 574 (1985). At the same time, "clearlyerroneous" review allows a federal court to entertain a defaulted claim in the rare case in which the "court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed." United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U. S. 364 , 395 (1948).
Finally, the "clearly-erroneous" standard is workable. As was true of the cause-and-prejudice standard adopted in Mc Cleskey v. Zant, the clear-error standard is "[w]ell-defined in the case law [and] familiar to federal courts .... The standard is an objective one, and can be applied in a manner that comports with the threshold nature of the abuse of the writ inquiry." 499 U. S., at 496. Federal courts have long applied the "clearly-erroneous" standard pursuant to Rule 52 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and have done so "in civil contempt actions, condemnation proceedings, copyright appeals, [and] forfeiture actions for illegal activity." 1 S. Childress & M. Davis, Standards of Review § 2.3, pp. 29-30
3 Courts have also reviewed nonguilt findings of fact made in criminal cases pursuant to Rule 23(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure under this standard. See 2 S. Childress & M. Davis, Standards of Review § 10.3, pp. 73-76 (1986) (citing cases).
Second, the affidavits and the new medical records do not convince me that Sawyer's death sentence is clearly erroneous. The jury found two statutory aggravating factorsthat the murder was committed in the course of an aggra-
4 See La. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 905.5(e) (West 1984) (defining "mitigating circumstances" to include the fact that "the capacity of the offender to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect" at the time of the offense).
Armontrout, 893 F.2d 152 , 156 (CA8 1989); Smith v. Armontrout, 888 F.2d 530 , 545 (CA8 1989).
Similarly, I do not share the Court's concern that a standard broader than the eligibility standard creates "a far more difficult task" for federal courts. Ante, at 346. As noted above, both the "probably resulted" standard and the "clearly-erroneous" standard have long been applied by federal courts in a variety of contexts. Moreover, to the extent that the "clearly-erroneous" standard is more difficult to apply than the Court's "eligibility" test, I believe that that cost is far outweighed by the importance of making just decisions in the few cases that fit within this narrow exception. To my mind, any added administrative burden is surely justified by the overriding interest in minimizing the risk of error in implementing the sovereign's decision to take the life of one of its citizens. As we observed in Gardner v. Florida, 430 U. S. 349 , 360 (1977), "if the disputed matter is of critical importance, the time invested in ascertaining the truth would surely be well spent if it makes the difference between life and death."