Cite as: 506 U. S. 390 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
cent person. See, e. g., Coy v. Iowa, 487 U. S. 1012 (1988) (right to confront adverse witnesses); Taylor v. Illinois, 484 U. S. 400 (1988) (right to compulsory process); Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984) (right to effective assistance of counsel); Winship, supra (prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt); Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U. S. 145 (1968) (right to jury trial); Brady v. Maryland, supra (prosecution must disclose exculpatory evidence); Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335 (1963) (right to assistance of counsel); In re Murchison, 349 U. S. 133, 136 (1955) (right to "fair trial in a fair tribunal"). In capital cases, we have required additional protections because of the nature of the penalty at stake. See, e. g., Beck v. Alabama, 447 U. S. 625 (1980) ( jury must be given option of convicting the defendant of a lesser offense). All of these constitutional safeguards, of course, make it more difficult for the State to rebut and finally overturn the presumption of innocence which attaches to every criminal defendant. But we have also observed that "[d]ue process does not require that every conceivable step be taken, at whatever cost, to eliminate the possibility of convicting an innocent person." Patterson v. New York, 432 U. S. 197, 208 (1977). To conclude otherwise would all but paralyze our system for enforcement of the criminal law.
Once a defendant has been afforded a fair trial and convicted of the offense for which he was charged, the presumption of innocence disappears. Cf. Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U. S. 600, 610 (1974) ("The purpose of the trial stage from the State's point of view is to convert a criminal defendant from a person presumed innocent to one found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt"). Here, it is not disputed that the State met its burden of proving at trial that petitioner was guilty of the capital murder of Officer Carrisalez beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, in the eyes of the law, petitioner does not come before the Court as one who is "innocent," but, on the
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