1.   Certainly, habeas review has proven a protection against the execution of the innocent.

2.   Federal habeas review is not the time for finetuning constitutional rules of criminal procedure at the expense of valid state convictions based on reasonable applications of thenexisting law.

3.   On both direct and habeas review, Thompson unsuccessfully asserted the involuntariness of his confession.

4.   Our habeas jurisprudence has also been informed by a proper recognition of the affront to a state when federal courts conduct habeas review.