356
Blackmun, J., concurring in judgment
"function in much the same capacity as the state trier of fact"; that is, to "make a rough decision on the question of guilt or innocence." Wilson, 477 U. S., at 471, n. 7 (Brennan, J., dissenting).
Most important, however, the focus on innocence assumes,
erroneously, that the only value worth protecting through federal habeas review is the accuracy and reliability of the guilt determination. But "[o]ur criminal justice system, and our Constitution, protect other values in addition to the reliability of the guilt or innocence determination, and the statutory duty to serve 'law and justice' should similarly reflect those values." Smith, 477 U. S., at 545 (Stevens, J., dissenting). The accusatorial system of justice adopted by the Founders affords a defendant certain process-based protections that do not have accuracy of truth finding as their primary goal. These protections—including the Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination, the Eighth Amendment right against the imposition of an arbitrary and capricious sentence, the Fourteenth Amendment right to be tried by an impartial judge, and the Fourteenth Amendment right not to be indicted by a grand jury or tried by a petit jury from which members of the defendant's race have been systematically excluded—are debased, and indeed, rendered largely irrelevant, in a system that values the accuracy of the guilt determination above individual rights.
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).
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