32
Opinion of the Court
circumstances. See Loper v. Beto, 405 U. S. 473, 500-501 (1972) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting). "The Due Process Clause does not, however, require a State to adopt one procedure over another on the basis that it may produce results more favorable to the accused." Medina v. California, 505 U. S. 437, 451 (1992). When a defendant challenges the validity of a previous guilty plea, the government will not invariably, or perhaps even usually, have superior access to evidence. Indeed, when the plea was entered in another jurisdiction, the defendant may be the only witness who was actually present at the earlier proceeding. If raising a Boykin claim and pointing to a missing record suffices to place the entire burden of proof on the government, the prosecution will not infrequently be forced to expend considerable effort and expense attempting to reconstruct records from farflung States where procedures are unfamiliar and memories unreliable. To the extent that the government fails to carry its burden due to the staleness or unavailability of evidence, of course, its legitimate interest in differentially punishing repeat offenders is compromised. In light of the relative positions of the defendant and the prosecution in recidivism proceedings, we cannot say that it is fundamentally unfair to place at least a burden of production on the defendant.
Respondent cites no historical tradition or contemporary practice indicating that Kentucky's scheme violates due process. See Medina, supra, at 446, 447. For much of our history, it appears that state courts altogether prohibited defendants in recidivism proceedings from challenging prior convictions as erroneous, as opposed to void for lack of jurisdiction. See, e. g., Kelly v. People, 115 Ill. 583, 588, 4 N. E. 644, 645-646 (1886); accord, State v. Webb, 36 N. D. 235, 243, 162 N. W. 358, 361 (1917). In recent years state courts have permitted various challenges to prior convictions and have allocated proof burdens differently. Some, like the Sixth Circuit, evidently place the full burden on the prosecution.
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