Wright v. West, 505 U.S. 277, 37 (1992)

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Cite as: 505 U. S. 277 (1992)

Souter, J., concurring in judgment

Although the principle that Sawyer invoked certainly "lent general support to the conclusion reached in Caldwell," ibid., we said that " 'it does not follow that [Eddings and Lockett] compel the rule that [petitioner] seeks,' " ibid. (second set of brackets in original) (quoting Saffle, supra, at 491).

In sum, our cases have recognized that "[t]he interests in finality, predictability, and comity underlying our new rule jurisprudence may be undermined to an equal degree by the invocation of a rule that was not dictated by precedent as by the application of an old rule in a manner that was not dictated by precedent." Stringer v. Black, 503 U. S. 222, 228 (1992). This does not mean, of course, that a habeas petitioner must be able to point to an old case decided on facts identical to the facts of his own. But it does mean that, in light of authority extant when his conviction became final, its unlawfulness must be apparent. Cf. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U. S. 635, 640 (1987).

II

In this case, the Court of Appeals overruled the Commonwealth's Teague objection by saying that West merely claimed that the evidence had been insufficient to support his conviction, so that the result he sought was dictated by Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (1979), a case announced before petitioner's conviction became final for Teague purposes in 1980. 931 F. 2d 262, 265-267 (CA4 1991). Having thus surmounted Teague's time hurdle, the court went on to say that "the evidence here consisted entirely of . . . the . . . facts . . . that about one-third in value of goods stolen between December 13 and December 26, 1978, were found on January 10, 1979, in the exclusive possession of . . . West, coupled with [West's] own testimony explaining his possession as having come about by purchases in the interval." 931 F. 2d, at 268. Applied in this context, the court held, the unadorned Jackson norm translated into the more specific rule announced in Cosby v. Jones, 682 F. 2d 1373 (CA11

313

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