Cite as: 513 U. S. 298 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
mentally unjust incarceration.' " Id., at 495, quoting Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S., at 135; see also Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S., at 537. In subsequent cases, we have consistently reaffirmed the existence and importance of the exception for fundamental miscarriages of justice. See, e. g., Sawyer, 505 U. S., at 339-340; McCleskey, 499 U. S., at 494-495; Dugger v. Adams, 489 U. S. 401, 414 (1989) (Blackmun, J., dissenting). To ensure that the fundamental miscarriage of justice exception would remain "rare" and would only be applied in the "extraordinary case," while at the same time ensuring that the exception would extend relief to those who were truly deserving, this Court explicitly tied the miscarriage of justice exception to the petitioner's innocence. In Kuhl-mann, for example, Justice Powell concluded that a prisoner retains an overriding "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. Similarly, Justice O'Connor wrote in Carrier that "in an extraordinary case, where a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent, a federal habeas court may grant the writ even in the absence of a showing of cause for the procedural default." 477 U. S., at 496; see also Smith v. Murray, 477 U. S., at 537, quoting Carrier, 477 U. S., at 496.
The general rule announced in Kuhlmann, Carrier, and Smith, and confirmed in this Court's more recent decisions, rests in part on the fact that habeas corpus petitions that advance a substantial claim of actual innocence are extremely rare.36 Judge Friendly's observation a quarter of a
36 Indeed, neither party called our attention to any decision from a Court of Appeals in which a petitioner had satisfied any definition of actual innocence. Though some such decisions exist, see, e. g., Henderson v. Sargent, 926 F. 2d 706, 713-714 (CA8), reaff'd in relevant part on rehearing, 939 F. 2d 586 (CA8 1991), cert. denied, 502 U. S. 1050 (1992); Bliss v. Lockhart,
321
Page: Index Previous 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007