Cite as: 513 U. S. 298 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
cution of a person who is entirely innocent.41 Indeed, concern about the injustice that results from the conviction of an innocent person has long been at the core of our criminal justice system. That concern is reflected, for example, in the "fundamental value determination of our society that it is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free." In re Winship, 397 U. S. 358, 372 (1970) (Harlan, J., concurring). See also T. Starkie, Evidence 756 (1824) ("The maxim of the law is . . . that it is better that ninety-nine . . . offenders should escape, than that one innocent man should be condemned"). See generally Newman, Beyond "Reasonable Doubt," 68 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 979, 980- 981 (1993).
The overriding importance of this greater individual interest merits protection by imposing a somewhat less exacting standard of proof on a habeas petitioner alleging a fundamental miscarriage of justice than on one alleging that his sentence is too severe. As this Court has noted, "a standard of proof represents an attempt to instruct the factfinder concerning the degree of confidence our society thinks he should have in the correctness of factual conclusions for a particular type of adjudication." In re Winship, 397 U. S., at 370 (Harlan, J., concurring); see also Addington v. Texas, 441 U. S. 418, 423 (1979). The standard of proof thus reflects "the relative importance attached to the ultimate decision." Ibid. Though the Sawyer standard was fashioned to reflect the relative importance of a claim of an erroneous sentence, application of that standard to petitioners such as Schlup would give insufficient weight to the correspondingly greater injustice that is implicated by a claim of actual innocence. The
41 See, e. g., Lankford v. Idaho, 500 U. S. 110, 125 (1991); Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S. 738, 750, n. 4 (1990); Booth v. Maryland, 482 U. S. 496, 509, n. 12 (1987); Solem v. Helm, 463 U. S. 277, 294 (1983); Gardner v. Florida, 430 U. S. 349, 357-358 (1977) (plurality opinion); Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U. S. 280, 303-304, 305 (1976) (plurality opinion of Stewart, Powell, and Stevens, JJ.).
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