Cite as: 520 U. S. 518 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
inference of established law a summary, per curiam disposition might normally carry is precluded by the peculiar circumstances surrounding the summary per curiam in Espinosa. Just three weeks prior to our issuance of Espinosa, we had decided a case that raised the identical issue, and in which that issue had been fully briefed and argued; we found ourselves without jurisdiction to decide the point, however, because the defendant had failed to preserve his objection in the state courts. See Sochor v. Florida, 504 U. S., at 533- 534. It is obvious on the face of the matter that Espinosa was only in the most technical sense an "unargued" case: We used that case, which was pending on petition for certiorari when Sochor was decided, as the vehicle for resolving a fully argued point without consuming additional resources.
V
Since we have determined that Espinosa announced a new rule under Teague, there remains only the task of determining whether that new rule nonetheless falls within one of the two exceptions to our nonretroactivity doctrine. "The first exception permits the retroactive application of a new rule if the rule places a class of private conduct beyond the power of the State to proscribe, see Teague, 489 U. S., at 311, or addresses a 'substantive categorical guarante[e] accorded by the Constitution,' such as a rule 'prohibiting a certain category of punishment for a class of defendants because of their status or offense.' " Saffle v. Parks, 494 U. S., at 494 (quoting Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U. S., at 329, 330). Plainly, this exception has no application to this case. Espinosa "neither decriminalize[s] a class of conduct nor prohibit[s] the imposition of capital punishment on a particular class of persons." 494 U. S., at 495.
The second exception is for " 'watershed rules of criminal procedure' implicating the fundamental fairness and accuracy of the criminal proceeding." Ibid. (quoting Teague,
539
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