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Cause-and-Prejudice Rule: In criminal law, if a prisoner wants to challenge their conviction based on a constitutional issue, they must first show that the issue was not available during their trial or that they could not have found it earlier. Then, they must prove with clear evidence that if the constitutional error had not happened, they would not have been convicted. This rule is an exception to the usual procedure and is meant to prevent prisoners from making baseless claims.
The cause-and-prejudice rule is a legal doctrine in criminal law that applies to prisoners who are petitioning for a federal writ of habeas corpus based on a constitutional challenge. This rule requires the prisoner to demonstrate two things:
For example, if a prisoner is claiming that their conviction was based on an unconstitutional search and seizure, they must show that the search and seizure violated a new rule of constitutional law or that the evidence could not have been discovered earlier despite due diligence. They must also prove that if the evidence had not been obtained through the unconstitutional search and seizure, they would not have been convicted.
The cause-and-prejudice rule is an exception to the procedural-default doctrine, which means that federal courts cannot grant relief on the basis of a constitutional challenge that was not presented at trial unless the prisoner can show good cause for failing to make the challenge at trial and that the trial court's error actually prejudiced the prisoner. Before 1996, the cause-and-prejudice rule allowed federal courts to grant relief on this basis.