Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 49 (1993)

Page:   Index   Previous  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  Next

438

HERRERA v. COLLINS

Blackmun, J., dissenting

Court's recent habeas jurisprudence. Beginning with a trio of decisions in 1986, this Court shifted the focus of federal habeas review of successive, abusive, or defaulted claims away from the preservation of constitutional rights to a fact-based inquiry into the habeas petitioner's guilt or innocence. See Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U. S. 436, 454 (plurality opinion); Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478, 496; Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S. 527, 537; see also McCleskey v. Zant, 499 U. S. 467, 493-494 (1991). The Court sought to strike a balance between the State's interest in the finality of its criminal judgments and the prisoner's interest in access to a forum to test the basic justice of his sentence. Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U. S., at 452. In striking this balance, the Court adopted the view of Judge Friendly that there should be an exception to the concept of finality when a prisoner can make a colorable claim of actual innocence. Friendly, Is Innocence Irrelevant? Collateral Attack on Criminal Judgments, 38 U. Chi. L. Rev. 142, 160 (1970).

Justice Powell, writing for the plurality in Wilson, explained the reason for focusing on innocence:

"The prisoner may have a vital interest in having a second chance to test the fundamental justice of his incarceration. Even where, as here, the many judges who have reviewed the prisoner's claims in several proceedings provided by the State and on his first petition for federal habeas corpus have determined that his trial was free from constitutional error, a prisoner retains a powerful and legitimate interest in obtaining his release from custody if he is innocent of the charge for which he was incarcerated. That interest does not extend, however, to prisoners whose guilt is conceded or plain." 477 U. S., at 452.

In other words, even a prisoner who appears to have had a constitutionally perfect trial "retains a powerful and legitimate interest in obtaining his release from custody if he is

Page:   Index   Previous  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007