94
Opinion of the Court
ida, 458 U. S. 782 (1982), and Tison v. Arizona, 481 U. S. 137 (1987), this Court held that the death penalty could not be imposed in a felony-murder case if the defendant was a minor participant in the crime and neither intended to kill nor had shown reckless indifference to human life. See 102 F. 3d, at 984-985. The Court of Appeals therefore granted respond-ent's petition and, relying on Circuit precedent holding that Beck applies only where the defendant is in fact sentenced to death, gave the State the option of retrying respondent or agreeing to modify his sentence to life imprisonment. See 102 F. 3d, at 986.
Because the decision below conflicted with a prior decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, see Greena-walt v. Ricketts, 943 F. 2d 1020 (1991), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 888 (1992), we granted certiorari. 521 U. S. 1151 (1997).3
II
The Court of Appeals erred in concluding that its holding was compelled by Beck, as the two cases differ fundamentally. In Beck, the defendant was indicted and convicted of the capital offense of " '[r]obbery or attempts thereof when the victim is intentionally killed by the defendant.' " 447 U. S., at 627 (quoting Ala. Code § 13-11-2(a)(2) (1975)). Although state law recognized the noncapital, lesser included offense of felony murder, see 447 U. S., at 628-630, and although lesser included offense instructions were generally available to noncapital defendants under state law, the Ala-3 One of the questions on which we granted certiorari was whether the Court of Appeals' holding was a "new rule" under Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). See Pet. for Cert. i. Because the State raised this argument for the first time in its petition for a writ of certiorari, we choose to decide the case on the merits. Cf. Godinez v. Moran, 509 U. S. 389, 397, n. 8 (1993) (declining to address whether the Court of Appeals created a "new rule" because the petitioner did not raise a Teague defense in the lower courts or in its petition for certiorari).
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