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purport to create a new "strand" of due process analysis, and it did not rely on the notion of a continuum of due process rights, as respondent claims. There is no such continuum. See, e. g., Murray v. Giarratano, 492 U. S. 1, 9-10. An examination of the function and significance of the discretionary clemency decision at issue here readily shows that it is far different from a first appeal as of right, and thus is not " 'an integral part of the . . . system for finally adjudicating . . . guilt or innocence,' " as Evitts, supra, at 393, requires. Pp. 279-285.
Justice O'Connor, joined by Justice Souter, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer, concluded that, because a prisoner under a death sentence has a continuing interest in his life, the question raised is what process is constitutionally necessary to protect that interest. Although due process demands are reduced once society has validly convicted an individual of a crime and therefore established its right to punish, Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U. S. 399, 429 (O'Connor, J., concurring in result in part and dissenting in part), the Court of Appeals correctly concluded that some minimal procedural safeguards apply to clemency proceedings. Judicial intervention might, for example, be warranted in the face of a scheme whereby a state official flipped a coin to determine whether to grant clemency, or in a case where the State arbitrarily denied a prisoner any access to its clemency process. However, a remand to permit the District Court to address respondent's specific allegations of due process violations is not required. The process he received com-ports with Ohio's regulations and observes whatever limitations the Due Process Clause may impose on clemency proceedings. Pp. 288-290.
Rehnquist, C. J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court with respect to Part III, the opinion of the Court with respect to Part I, in which O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Part II, in which Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined. O'Connor, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined, post, p. 288. Stevens, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 290.
William A. Klatt, First Assistant Attorney General of Ohio, argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, Jeffrey S. Sutton, State Solicitor, Simon B. Karas, and Jon C. Walden, Assistant Attorney General.
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