Cite as: 513 U. S. 298 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
assistance; and the affidavit of Lieutenant Faherty describing Schlup's unhurried walk to the dining room. If there were no question about the fairness of the criminal trial, a Herrera-type claim would have to fail unless the federal habeas court is itself convinced that those new facts unquestionably establish Schlup's innocence. On the other hand, if the habeas court were merely convinced that those new facts raised sufficient doubt about Schlup's guilt to undermine confidence in the result of the trial without the assurance that that trial was untainted by constitutional error, Schlup's threshold showing of innocence would justify a review of the merits of the constitutional claims.
IV
As this Court has repeatedly noted, "[a]t common law, res judicata did not attach to a court's denial of habeas relief." McCleskey, 499 U. S., at 479. Instead, " 'a renewed application could be made to every other judge or court in the realm, and each court or judge was bound to consider the question of the prisoner's right to a discharge independently, and not to be influenced by the previous decisions refusing discharge.' " Ibid., quoting W. Church, Writ of Habeas Corpus § 386, p. 570 (2d ed. 1893).
The Court has explained the early tolerance of successive petitions, in part, by the fact that the writ originally performed only the narrow function of testing either the jurisdiction of the sentencing court or the legality of Executive detention. See McCleskey, 499 U. S., at 478; Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. 72, 78 (1977).33 The scope of the writ later expanded beyond its original narrow purview to encompass
33 As this Court noted in Wainwright v. Sykes, there have been "divergent discussions of the historic role of federal habeas corpus." 433 U. S., at 77, n. 6. One recent commentator has offered a new perspective on the history of the writ. See Liebman, Apocalypse Next Time?: The Anachronistic Attack on Habeas Corpus/Direct Review Parity, 92 Colum. L. Rev. 1997 (1992).
317
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