Algorithms based on multiple decoding attempts of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes have recently attracted new attention. Choosing decoding candidates based on rate-distortion theory, as proposed previously by the authors, currently provides the best performance-versus-complexity trade-off. In this paper, an analysis based on the rate-distortion exponent is used to directly minimize the exponential decay rate of the error probability. This enables rigorous bounds on the error probability for finite-length RS codes and leads to modest performance gains. As a byproduct, a numerical method is derived that computes the rate-distortion exponent for independent non-identical sources. Analytical results are given for errors/erasures decoding. © 2010 IEEE.