554
Scalia, J., dissenting
Wiggins was not prejudiced by their allegedly inadequate investigation. There is simply nothing to show (and the Court does not even dare to assert) that there is a "reasonable probability" this evidence would have been introduced in this case. Ante, at 535-536.
What is more, almost all of Selvog's social-history evidence was inadmissible at the time of Wiggins' trial. Maryland law provides that evidence in a capital sentencing proceeding must be "reliable" to be admissible, see Whittlesey v. State, 340 Md. 30, 70, 665 A. 2d 223, 243 (1995), and many of the anecdotes regarding Wiggins' childhood consist of the baldest hearsay—statements that have been neither taken in court, nor given under oath, nor subjected to cross-examination, nor even submitted in the form of a signed affidavit. Consider, for example, the allegation that Wiggins' foster father sexually abused him " 'two or three times a week, sometimes everyday,' " App. to Pet. for Cert. 177a. The only source of that information was Wiggins himself, in his unsworn and un-cross-examined interview with Hans Selvog. There is absolutely no documentation or corroboration of the claim, App. 464, and the allegedly abusive foster parent is apparently deceased, id., at 470. Wiggins was, however, examined by a pediatrician during the time that this supposed biweekly or daily sexual abuse occurred, and the pediatrician's report mentioned no signs of sexual abuse. App. to Pet. for Cert. 181a; App. 464.
Much of the other "evidence" in Selvog's report (including Wiggins' claim that he was drugged by his Job Corps supervisor and raped while unconscious, and that he was raped by the teenage sons at his fourth foster home) was also undocumented and based entirely on Wiggins' say-so. The Court treats all this uncorroborated gossip as established fact,5
5 Wiggins' postconviction lawyers could have increased the credibility of these anecdotes, and assisted this Court's prejudice determination, by at least having Wiggins testify under oath in the state postconviction proceedings as to his allegedly abusive childhood. They did not do that—
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