They were indicted for robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree, possession of a dangerous weapon, grand larceny in the third degree, and burglary in the second degree.

The grand larceny count was dismissed at the sentencing stage as a lesser included count within robbery in the second degree.

“The next argument set forth is directed at the sufficiency of the evidence presented in petitioner’s state court criminal trial. Such an allegation is beyond the scope of federal habeas corpus review and does not rise to the level of a constitutional infringement, United States ex rel. Nersesian v. Smith, 418 F. Supp. 26, 27 (SDNY 1976) unless ‘there was no proof whatever of the crime charged.’ United States ex rel. Terry v. Henderson, 426 F. 2d 1125, 1131 (2d Cir. 1972). I have reviewed the trial transcript. Any allegation that the trial record is devoid of evidence must be rejected as are Petitioner’s Points IV, VI, VII, and VIII which, when liberally read, are variations on the claim of insufficiency of the evidence.” App. to Pet. for Cert. A-12.

The District Court’s ruling predated this Court’s decision in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (1979). The Court of Appeals held, however, that the insufficiency of the evidence claim is without merit even under the test of Jackson. 643 F. 2d 86, 90, n. 2 (CA2 1981).

The Court of Appeals concluded that “when verdicts in a non-jury trial are facially inconsistent, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not permit a conviction to stand unless the trial court demonstrates by appropriate findings that the conviction validly rests on a rational basis.” Id., at 87.

“For the foregoing reasons we reverse the District Court’s judgment and remand with directions to enter an order conditionally vacating petitioner’s conviction and awarding him a new trial unless the state trial court demonstrates by appropriate findings rendered within ninety days that petitioner’s conviction is valid.” Id., at 97.

“If the state trial court makes findings purporting to demonstrate the validity of the conviction, petitioner may return to the District Court and renew his habeas corpus challenge to his conviction. At that point, the issue will be whether the state court conviction, considered in light of the acquittal of petitioner’s co-defendant and in light of the state trial court’s findings, denies petitioner his liberty without due process of law.” Id., at 97-98 (footnote omitted).

See id., at 94. The Court of Appeals relied on United States v. Maybury, 274 F. 2d 899 (1960), in which a divided panel of the Second Circuit reversed a conviction on one count of a two-count indictment because the majority found the acquittal on the second count to be inconsistent with the conviction on the first. Judge Friendly expressed the view that the defendant could be retried on both counts, id., at 904^906; Judge Lumbard expressed the view that the defendant could be retried on neither count and that the indictment must be dismissed, id., at 906-907 (dissenting in part). Judge Learned Hand concluded that the verdicts were not logically inconsistent and would not have reversed the conviction “[rjegardless of whether the doctrine of [Dunn v. United States, 284 U. S. 390 (1932)] applies to cases tried to a judge.” Id., at 908 (dissenting in part and concurring in part). As the Court of Appeals in this case recognized, “in prohibiting inconsistent bench trial verdicts, Maybury does not purport to rest on any provision of the Constitution and may well have been decided solely in the exercise of the Court’s supervisory power over the administration of criminal justice within this Circuit.” 643 F. 2d, at 94.

In this case the Court of Appeals described the “Maybury rule barring inconsistent verdicts in federal criminal bench trials” as “well established *343in this Circuit.” Id., at 91. We note, however, that in none of the three cases cited for that proposition was a verdict actually overturned on the ground of inconsistency. Indeed, in one of those cases the court expressly noted that an inconsistency resulting from an acquittal that may have rested on the trial judge’s erroneous view of the law could not justify reversal of the conviction. See United States v. Wilson, 342 F. 2d 43, 45 (CA2 1965). In all events, the Court of Appeals noted: “To our knowledge, however, this is the first time that a habeas applicant has asked us to overturn a state conviction on the basis of the Maybury rule.” 643 F. 2d, at 91.

In United States v. Duz-Mor Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc., 650 F. 2d 223 (1981), a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit followed the Second Circuit’s reasoning in this case.

In Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U. S. 141, 146 (1973), with particular reference to a challenged jury instruction, the Court articulated the difference between a federal court of appeals’ supervisory power over the district courts within its jurisdiction and the court of appeals’ authority to grant relief under 28 U. S. C. § 2254:

“Within such a unitary jurisdictional framework the appellate court will, of course, require the trial court to conform to constitutional mandates, but it may likewise require it to follow procedures deemed desirable from the viewpoint of sound judicial practice although in nowise commanded by statute or by the Constitution. Thus even substantial unanimity among federal courts of appeals that the instruction in question ought not to be given in United States district courts within their respective jurisdictions is not, without more, authority for declaring that the giving of the instruction makes a resulting conviction invalid under the Fourteenth Amend*344ment. Before a federal court may overturn a conviction resulting from a state trial in which this instruction was used, it must be established not merely that the instruction is undesirable, erroneous, or even ‘universally condemned,’ but that it violated some right which was guaranteed to the defendant by the Fourteenth Amendment.”

It is noteworthy that the Courts of Appeals are not in agreement that the Maybury holding is an appropriate exercise of the supervisory power over federal district courts. See, e. g., United States v. West, 549 F. 2d 545 (CA8), cert. denied, 430 U. S. 956 (1977).

See Arizona v. Washington, 434 U. S. 497, 517 (1978) (“Review of any trial court decision is, of course, facilitated by findings and by an explanation of the reasons supporting the decision. No matter how desirable such procedural assistance may be, it is not constitutionally mandated in a case such as this”).

See Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U. S. 471, 489 (1972); Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U. S. 539, 564-565 (1974).

Moreover, when other procedural safeguards have minimized the risk of unfairness, there is a diminished justification for requiring a judge to ex*345plain his rulings. See Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U. S. 458, 472 (1981) (Stevens, J., dissenting).

Our holding that the risk of constitutional error inherent in facially inconsistent bench trial verdicts is not substantial, see discussion infra, at 345-348, undercuts the initial premise of the Court of Appeals’ analysis of the question whether a state prisoner is constitutionally entitled to an explanation of such verdicts.

Accord, Hamling v. United States, 418 U. S. 87, 101 (1974). Cf. Hartzell v. United States, 322 U. S. 680, 682, n. 3 (1944) (the trial court’s setting aside of the conspiracy convictions of petitioner’s only alleged co-conspirators “makes it impossible to sustain the petitioner’s conviction upon ... the conspiracy count”); but cf. Standefer v. United States, 447 U. S. 10 (1980) (a defendant accused of aiding and abetting in the commission of a federal offense may be convicted after the named principal has been acquitted of that offense in a previous trial).

“Equally baseless is the claim of Dotterweich that, having failed to find the corporation guilty, the jury could not find him guilty. Whether the jury’s verdict was the result of carelessness or compromise or a belief that the responsible individual should suffer the penalty instead of merely increasing, as it were, the cost of running the business of the corporation, is immaterial. Juries may indulge in precisely such motives or vagaries. Dunn v. United States, 284 U. S. 390.” .

Justice Holmes’ opinion in Dunn, his last for the Court, characteristically was brief and to the point. He quoted the following passage from Steckler v. United States, 7 F. 2d 59, 60 (CA2 1925):

“ ‘The most that can be said in such cases is that the verdict shows that either in the acquittal or the conviction the jury did not speak their real conclusions, but that does not show that they were not convinced of the defendant’s guilt. We interpret the acquittal as no more than their assumption of a power which they had no right to exercise, but to which they were disposed through lenity.’ ” Dunn v. United States, 284 U. S., at 393. After citing Horning v. District of Columbia, 254 U. S. 135 (1920), he added:

“That the verdict may have been the result of compromise, or of a mistake on the part of the jury, is possible. But verdicts cannot be upset by speculation or inquiry into such matters.” 284 U. S., at 393-394.

See 643 F. 2d, at 94-95.

Cf. Arizona v. Washington, 434 U. S., at 518 (White, J., dissenting): “[In Townsend v. Sain, 372 U. S. 293 (1963), the] Court concluded that ‘the coequal responsibilities of state and federal judges in the administration of federal constitutional law are such that we think the district judge may, in the ordinary case in which there has been no articulation, properly assume that the state trier of fact applied correct standards of federal law to the facts, in the absence of evidence . . . that there is reason to suspect that an incorrect standard was in fact applied.’ Id., at 314-315. A silent record is not a sufficient basis for concluding that the state judge has committed constitutional error; the mere possibility of error is not enough to warrant habeas corpus relief.”

In fact, the New York Supreme Court Justice who tried this case stated that he had a reasonable doubt as to Robinson’s guilt. 643 F. 2d, at 90.

See n. 7, supra.

«-pjjg question whether the evidence is constitutionally sufficient is of course wholly unrelated to the question of how rationally the verdict was actually reached. Just as the standard announced today does not permit a court to make its own subjective determination of guilt or innocence, it does not require scrutiny of the reasoning process actually used by the factfinder — if known.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S., at 319-320, n. 13.

Cf. 643 F. 2d, at 94, n. 5 (rejecting respondent’s equal protection challenge to the allegedly inconsistent verdicts). See also North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U. S. 711, 722-723 (1969). Our conclusion that federal habeas corpus relief is not authorized in this case is buttressed by the practical problems with the Court of Appeals’ holding even if some constitutional right of the convicted defendant were more clearly implicated. In Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U. S. 145, 154, n. 13 (1977), we noted that such practi*349cal problems are relevant in determining whether federal habeas relief is available:

“The strong interest in preserving the finality of judgments, [citations omitted], as well as the interest in orderly trial procedure, must be overcome before collateral relief can be justified. For a collateral attack may be made many years after the conviction when it may be impossible, as a practical matter, to conduct a retrial.”

On remand from the federal habeas court, the state trial judge, if he is still on the bench, may not remember the criminal case, much less the reasons for convicting one codefendant but acquitting another. Confronted by defense counsel’s assertion that the evidence of guilt was the same for both codefendants, he may well decide that he erroneously acquitted one co-defendant; such a finding would have to satisfy the federal habeas court, but would hardly placate the habeas petitioner.