Robert Wayne Sawyer v. John Whitley, Warden (505 U.S. 333)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 22, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 505 U.S. 333 · 112 S. Ct. 2514
- Decided
- June 22, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Rehnquist
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
CHIEF Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. The issue before the Court is the standard for determining whether a petitioner bringing a successive, abusive, or defaulted federal habeas claim has shown he is “actually innocent” of the death penalty to which he has been sentenced so that the court may reach the merits of the claim. Robert Wayne Sawyer, the petitioner in this case, filed a second federal habeas petition containing successive and abusive claims. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit refused to examine the merits of Sawyer’s claims. It held that Sawyer had not shown cause for failure to raise these claims in his earlier petition, and that he had not shown that he was “actually innocent” of the crime of which he was convicted or the penalty which was imposed. 945 F. 2d 812 (1991). We affirm the Court of Appeals and hold that to show “actual innocence” one must show by clear and convincing evidence that, but for a constitutional error, no reasonable juror would have found the petitioner eligible for the death penalty under the applicable state law. In 1979 — 13 years ago — petitioner and his accomplice, Charles Lane, brutally murdered Frances Arwood, who was a guest in the home petitioner shared with his girlfriend, Cynthia Shano, and Shano’s two young children. As we recounted in our earlier review of this case, Sawyer v. Smith, 497 U. S. 227…
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