352
Blackmun, J., concurring in judgment
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");
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