Lloyd Schlup v. Paul K. Delo, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center (513 U.S. 298)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 23, 1995 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 513 U.S. 298 · 115 S. Ct. 851
- Decided
- January 23, 1995
- Term
- October Term 1994
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner Lloyd E. Schlup, Jr., a Missouri prisoner currently under a sentence of death, filed a second federal habeas corpus petition alleging that constitutional error deprived the jury of critical evidence that would have established his innocence. The District Court, without conducting an evidentiary hearing, declined to reach the merits of the petition, holding that petitioner could not satisfy the threshold showing of “actual innocence” required by Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U. S. 333 (1992). Under Sawyer, the petitioner must show “by clear and convincing evidence that, but for a constitutional error, no reasonable juror would have found the petitioner” guilty. Id., at 336. The Court of Appeals affirmed. We granted certiorari to consider whether the Sawyer standard provides adequate protection against the kind of miscarriage of justice that would result from the execution of a person who is actually innocent. I On February 3, 1984, on Walk 1 of the high security area of the Missouri State Penitentiary, a black inmate named Arthur Dade was stabbed to death. Three white inmates from Walk 2, including petitioner, were charged in connection with Dade’s murder. At petitioner’s trial in December 1985, the State’s evidence consisted principally of the testimony of two corrections officers who had witnessed the killing. On the…
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