Cite as: 540 U. S. 668 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
to one of the "two predicates for capital murder: [armed] robbery," id., at 294. Other evidence in the record, the Court found, provided strong support for the conviction even if the witness' testimony had been excluded entirely: Unlike the Banks prosecution, in Strickler, "considerable forensic and other physical evidence link[ed] [the defendant] to the crime" and supported the capital murder conviction. Id., at 293. Most tellingly, the witness' testimony in Strickler "did not relate to [the petitioner's] eligibility for the death sentence"; it "was not relied upon by the prosecution at all during its closing argument at the penalty phase." Id., at 295. In contrast, Farr's testimony was the centerpiece of Banks's prosecution's penalty-phase case.
Farr's trial testimony, critical at the penalty phase, was cast in large doubt by the declaration Banks ultimately obtained from Farr and introduced in the federal habeas proceeding. See supra, at 678, 684. In the guilt phase of Banks's trial, Farr had acknowledged his narcotics use. App. 36. In the penalty phase, Banks's counsel asked Farr if, "drawn up tight over" previous drug-related activity, he would "testify to anything anybody want[ed] to hear"; Farr denied this. Id., at 110; supra, at 680. Farr's declaration supporting Banks's federal habeas petition, however, vividly contradicts that denial: "I assumed that if I did not help [Huff] . . . he would have me arrested for drug charges." App. 442, ¶ 6. Had jurors known of Farr's continuing interest in obtaining Deputy Sheriff Huff's favor, in addition to his receipt of funds to "set [Banks] up," id., at 442, ¶ 7, they might well have distrusted Farr's testimony, and, insofar as it was uncorroborated, disregarded it.
The jury, moreover, did not benefit from customary, truth-promoting precautions that generally accompany the testimony of informants. This Court has long recognized the "serious questions of credibility" informers pose. On Lee v. United States, 343 U. S. 747, 757 (1952). See also Trott, Words of Warning for Prosecutors Using Criminals as Wit-
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