Cite as: 513 U. S. 298 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
base. In fact, counsel apparently failed to conduct individual interviews with any of the potential witnesses to the crime.
Judge Heaney adhered to his conclusion that Schlup's counsel was ineffective, even though counsel allegedly had reviewed 100 interviews conducted by prison investigators.26
Judge Heaney argued that counsel's review of the interview transcripts—rather than demonstrating counsel's effectiveness—made counsel's failure to conduct his own interviews with Green and the few inmates who admitted seeing the attack even more troubling. See id., at 747, n. 5. Judge Heaney concluded that Schlup's case should be remanded to the District Court to conduct an evidentiary hearing and, if appropriate, to address the merits of Schlup's constitutional claims.
On November 17, 1993, the Court of Appeals denied a suggestion for rehearing en banc. Dissenting from that denial, three judges joined an opinion describing the question whether the majority should have applied the standard announced in Sawyer v. Whitley, supra, rather than the Kuhl-mann standard as "a question of great importance in habeas corpus jurisprudence." 11 F. 3d, at 755. We granted certiorari to consider that question. 511 U. S. 1003 (1994).27
III
As a preliminary matter, it is important to explain the difference between Schlup's claim of actual innocence and the
26 The transcripts of the individual interviews conducted by the prison investigators were relatively brief: The entire written transcript of the investigators' interview with Green, for example, takes up less than one page. The vast majority of the interviews consisted of simple statements that the interviewee had not seen Dade's killing.
27 Though the Court of Appeals denied Schlup's motion for a stay of execution, the Governor of Missouri granted a stay one day before Schlup's execution date. The Governor then ordered a Board of Inquiry to conduct clemency proceedings. Those proceedings are apparently continuing.
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