426
O'Connor, J., concurring
cessive federal habeas petition[s] should be granted only when there are 'substantial grounds upon which relief might be granted,' " Delo v. Stokes, 495 U. S. 320, 321 (1990) (quoting Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U. S. 880, 895 (1983)), and only when the equities favor the petitioner, see Gomez v. United States Dist. Court for Northern Dist. of Cal., 503 U. S. 653, 654 (1992) (Whether a claim is framed "as a habeas petition or as a [42 U. S. C.] § 1983 action, [what is sought is] an equitable remedy. . . . A court may consider the last-minute nature of an application to stay execution in deciding whether to grant equitable relief"). Petitioner's claim satisfied neither condition. The grounds petitioner offered in his habeas petition were anything but substantial. And the equities favored the State. Petitioner delayed presenting his new evidence until eight years after conviction—without offering a semblance of a reasonable excuse for the inordinate delay. At some point in time, the State's interest in finality must outweigh the prisoner's interest in yet another round of litigation. In this case, that point was well short of eight years.
Unless federal proceedings and relief—if they are to be had at all—are reserved for "extraordinarily high" and "truly persuasive demonstration[s] of 'actual innocence' " that cannot be presented to state authorities, ante, at 417, the federal courts will be deluged with frivolous claims of actual innocence. Justice Jackson explained the dangers of such circumstances some 40 years ago:
"It must prejudice the occasional meritorious application to be buried in a flood of worthless ones. He who must search a haystack for a needle is likely to end up with the attitude that the needle is not worth the search." Brown v. Allen, 344 U. S. 443, 537 (1953) (concurring in result).
If the federal courts are to entertain claims of actual innocence, their attention, efforts, and energy must be reserved
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