556
Opinion of the Court
good-faith attempts to honor constitutional rights.' " Murray v. Carrier, supra, at 487 (quoting Engle, supra, at 128). "Our federal system recognizes the independent power of a State to articulate societal norms through criminal law; but the power of a State to pass laws means little if the State cannot enforce them." McCleskey, 499 U. S., at 491.
A State's interests in finality are compelling when a federal court of appeals issues a mandate denying federal habeas relief. At that point, having in all likelihood borne for years "the significant costs of federal habeas review," id., at 490-491, the State is entitled to the assurance of finality. When lengthy federal proceedings have run their course and a mandate denying relief has issued, finality acquires an added moral dimension. Only with an assurance of real finality can the State execute its moral judgment in a case. Only with real finality can the victims of crime move forward knowing the moral judgment will be carried out. See generally Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U. S. 808 (1991). To unsettle these expectations is to inflict a profound injury to the "powerful and legitimate interest in punishing the guilty," Herrera v. Collins, 506 U. S. 390, 421 (1993) (O'Connor, J., concurring), an interest shared by the State and the victims of crime alike.
This case well illustrates the extraordinary costs associated with a federal court of appeals' recall of its mandate denying federal habeas relief. By July 31, 1997, to vindicate the laws enacted by the legislature of the State of California, a jury had convicted Thompson of rape and murder and recommended that he be executed; the trial judge had imposed a sentence of death; the California Supreme Court had affirmed Thompson's sentence and on four occasions refused to disturb it on collateral attack; and, in a comprehensive and public decision, the Governor had determined the sentence was just. Relying upon the mandate denying habeas relief to Thompson, the State of California had invoked its entire legal and moral authority in support of executing its judg-
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