Cite as: 513 U. S. 298 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
tioner who has been sentenced to death raises a claim of actual innocence to avoid a procedural bar to the consideration of the merits of his constitutional claims.
VI
The Carrier standard requires the habeas petitioner to show that "a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent." 477 U. S., at 496. To establish the requisite probability, the petitioner must show that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in the light of the new evidence. The petitioner thus is required to make a stronger showing than that needed to establish prejudice.45 At the
same time, the showing of "more likely than not" imposes a lower burden of proof than the "clear and convincing" standard required under Sawyer. The Carrier standard thus ensures that petitioner's case is truly "extraordinary," Mc-Cleskey, 499 U. S., at 494, while still providing petitioner a meaningful avenue by which to avoid a manifest injustice.
Carrier requires a petitioner to show that he is "actually innocent." As used in Carrier, actual innocence is closely related to the definition set forth by this Court in Sawyer. To satisfy the Carrier gateway standard, a petitioner must show that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have found petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Several observations about this standard are in order. The Carrier standard is intended to focus the inquiry on actual innocence. In assessing the adequacy of petitioner's showing, therefore, the district court is not bound by the rules of admissibility that would govern at trial. Instead, the emphasis on "actual innocence" allows the reviewing tribunal also to consider the probative force of relevant evi-45 See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 694 (1984); United States v. Bagley, 473 U. S. 667, 682 (1985) (Blackmun, J.); id., at 685 (White, J., concurring).
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