Cite as: 520 U. S. 518 (1997)
Syllabus
of which is more appropriately determined by the lower federal courts, which are more familiar with the procedural practices of the States in which they sit. Rather than prolong this litigation by a remand, the Court proceeds to decide the question presented. Pp. 522-525. 2. A prisoner whose conviction became final before Espinosa is fore-closed from relying on that decision in a federal habeas proceeding. Pp. 525-540. (a) To apply Teague, a federal habeas court must: (1) determine the date on which the defendant's conviction became final; (2) survey the legal landscape as it existed on that date to determine whether a state court then considering the defendant's claim would have felt compelled by existing precedent to conclude that the rule the defendant seeks was constitutionally required; and (3) if not, consider whether the relief sought falls within one of two narrow exceptions to nonretroactivity. Pp. 525-527. (b) A survey of the legal landscape as of the date that Lambrix's conviction became final shows that Espinosa was not dictated by then-existing precedent, but announced a "new rule" as defined in Teague. It is significant that Espinosa, supra, at 1082, cited only a single case in support of its central conclusion, Baldwin v. Alabama, 472 U. S. 372, 382, and introduced that lone citation with a "cf."—an introductory signal indicating authority that supports the point in dictum or by analogy. Baldwin states, on the page that Espinosa cites, 472 U. S., at 382, that the defendant's Espinosa-like argument "conceivably might have merit" in circumstances not present in that case. The decisions relied on most heavily by Lambrix—Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U. S. 420; Maynard v. Cartwright, 486 U. S. 356; and Clemons v. Mississippi, 494 U. S. 738— do not dictate the result ultimately reached in Espinosa. Rather, a close examination of the Florida death penalty scheme, in light of cases such as Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U. S. 242, 253 (joint opinion); id., at 260-261 (White, J., concurring in judgment); and Spaziano v. Florida, 468 U. S. 447, 451, 466, indicates that a reasonable jurist considering the matter at the time Lambrix's sentence became final could have reached a result different from Espinosa. That conclusion is confirmed by Walton v. Arizona, 497 U. S. 639, 653-654. The fact that Espinosa was handed down as a per curiam without oral argument is insignificant, since the decision followed by just three weeks Sochor v. Florida, 504 U. S. 527, in which the identical issue was fully briefed and argued, but could not be decided for jurisdictional reasons. Pp. 527-539. (c) Espinosa's new rule does not fall within either of the exceptions to this Court's nonretroactivity doctrine. The first exception plainly has no application, since Espinosa neither decriminalizes a class of conduct nor prohibits the imposition of capital punishment on a particular
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