118
Per Curiam
fronted for the first time at oral argument with a substantive due process claim, the State reasserted that "the prohibition of Teague against Lane on the enforcement of new rules of constitutional law for the first time in a collateral attack proceeding in federal court applies with full force to this case." Id., at 152. The next five pages of the record are devoted to the court's questions and the State's responses regarding the Teague issue. App. to Pet. for Cert. 153-157.
This record supports the State's position that it raised the Teague claim. The State's efforts to alert the Eighth Circuit to the Teague problem provided that court with ample opportunity to make a reasoned judgment on the issue. Cf. Webb v. Webb, 451 U. S. 493, 501 (1981) (federal claim properly raised where there is "no doubt from the record that [the claim] was presented in the state courts and that those courts were apprised of the nature or substance of the federal claim"). The State did not waive the Teague issue; it must be considered now; and it is dispositive. See Caspari, supra, at 389; Gilmore v. Taylor, 508 U. S. 333, 338-339 (1993).
A new rule for Teague purposes is one where " 'the result was not dictated by precedent existing at the time the defendant's conviction became final.' " Caspari, supra, at 390 (quoting Teague, 489 U. S., at 301) (emphasis deleted); Gilmore, supra, at 339-340; Graham v. Collins, 506 U. S. 461, 466-467 (1993). The question is " 'whether a state court considering [the defendant's] claim at the time his conviction became final would have felt compelled by existing precedent to conclude that the rule [he] seeks was required by the Constitution.' " Caspari, supra, at 390 (quoting Saffle v. Parks, 494 U. S. 484, 488 (1990)).
Neither respondent nor the Eighth Circuit identifies existing precedent for the proposition that there is no substantial basis for appellate dismissal when a defendant fails to appear at sentencing, becomes a fugitive, demonstrates contempt for the legal system, and imposes significant cost and expense
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