Cite as: 520 U. S. 518 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
mitted to weigh invalid aggravating circumstances. Lambrix seeks the benefit of that principle; the State contends that it constitutes a new rule under Teague and thus cannot be relied on in a federal habeas corpus proceeding.1
In Teague we held that, in general, "new constitutional rules of criminal procedure will not be applicable to those cases which have become final before the new rules are announced." 489 U. S., at 310-311. To apply Teague, a federal court engages in a three-step process. First, it determines the date upon which the defendant's conviction became final. See Caspari v. Bohlen, 510 U. S., at 390. Second, it must " '[s]urve[y] the legal landscape as it then existed,' Graham v. Collins, [506 U. S. 461, 468 (1993)], and 'determine 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,' Saffle v. Parks, 494 U. S. 484, 488 (1990)." Ibid. Finally, if the court determines that the habeas petitioner seeks the benefit of a new rule, the court must consider whether the relief sought falls within one of the two narrow exceptions to nonretroactivity. See Gilmore v. Taylor, 508 U. S., at 345.
IV
Lambrix's conviction became final on November 24, 1986, when his time for filing a petition for certiorari expired. Thus, our first and principal task is to survey the legal landscape as of that date, to determine whether the rule later announced in Espinosa was dictated by then-existing precedent—whether, that is, the unlawfulness of Lambrix's
1 Lambrix also contends that the trial court itself failed to apply a properly narrowed HAC aggravator. We decline to consider this contention because it is not fairly within the question presented, which asked only whether Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989), bars relief based upon Espinosa v. Florida, 505 U. S. 1079 (1992) (per curiam), Pet. for Cert. i. See this Court's Rule 14.1(a).
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