Cite as: 523 U. S. 538 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
ment. Yet, after almost 13 years of state and federal review of Thompson's conviction and sentence, almost one year after Thompson filed his petition for rehearing and suggestion for rehearing en banc, a full 53 days after issuance of the mandate denying relief, and a mere two days before Thompson was scheduled to be executed, the Ninth Circuit recalled its mandate and granted the writ of habeas corpus. The costs imposed by these actions are as severe as any that can be imposed in federal habeas review.
We should be clear about the circumstances we address in this case. We deal not with the recall of a mandate to correct mere clerical errors in the judgment itself, similar to those described in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 36 or Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a). The State can have little interest, based on reliance or other grounds, in preserving a mandate not in accordance with the actual decision rendered by the court. This also is not a case of fraud upon the court, calling into question the very legitimacy of the judgment. See Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co., 322 U. S. 238 (1944). Nor is this a case where the mandate is stayed under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 41 pending the court's disposition of a suggestion for rehearing en banc.
Rather, we are concerned with cases where, as here, a court of appeals recalls its mandate to revisit the merits of its earlier decision denying habeas relief. In these cases, the State's interests in finality are all but paramount, without regard to whether the court of appeals predicates the recall on a procedural misunderstanding or some other irregularity occurring prior to its decision. The prisoner has already had extensive review of his claims in federal and state courts. In the absence of a strong showing of "actua[l] innocen[ce]," Murray v. Carrier, supra, at 496, the State's interests in actual finality outweigh the prisoner's interest in obtaining yet another opportunity for review.
557
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