854
Stevens, J., dissenting
state remedies and then rushing into the federal system, the comity interests that animate the exhaustion rule could easily be thwarted. We therefore ask in federal habeas cases not only whether an applicant has exhausted his state remedies; we also ask how he has done so. This second inquiry forms the basis for our procedural default doctrine: A habeas petitioner who has concededly exhausted his state remedies must also have properly done so by giving the State a fair "opportunity to pass upon [his claims]." Darr v. Burford, 339 U. S. 200, 204 (1950). When a prisoner has deprived the state courts of such an opportunity, he has procedurally defaulted his claims and is ineligible for federal habeas relief save a showing of "cause and prejudice," Murray v. Carrier, 477 U. S. 478, 485 (1986), or " 'a fundamental miscarriage of justice' " id., at 495.
In the first of our modern procedural default cases, Francis v. Henderson, 425 U. S. 536 (1976), we held that a state prisoner had waived his right to challenge the composition of his grand jury because he had failed to comply with a state law requiring that such a challenge be made in advance of trial. Our opinion did not even mention the obvious fact that the petitioner had exhausted his state remedies; rather, it stressed the importance of requiring " 'prompt assertion of the right to challenge discriminatory practices in the make-up of a grand jury.' " Id., at 541.
Similarly, in Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U. S. 72 (1977), we held that the failure to object at trial to the admission of an inculpatory statement precluded a federal court from entertaining in a habeas proceeding the claim that the statement was involuntary. Our opinion correctly assumed that the petitioner had exhausted his state remedies. Id., at 80-81. Our conclusion that waiver was appropriate rested largely on the importance of treating a trial as "the 'main event,' so to speak," and making the necessary record "with respect to the constitutional claim when the recollections of witnesses are freshest, not years later in a federal habeas proceeding."
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007