Cite as: 521 U. S. 151 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
B
Petitioner contends that, even if it is new, the rule of Simmons falls within the second exception to Teague, which permits retroactive application of " 'watershed rules of criminal procedure' implicating the fundamental fairness and accuracy of the criminal proceeding." Graham, 506 U. S., at 478 (quoting Teague, 489 U. S., at 311). Petitioner describes the "practice condemned in Simmons" as a "shocking one." Brief for Petitioner 33. The rule forbidding it, we are told, is "on par" with Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335 (1963)— which we have cited as an example of the sort of rule falling within Teague's second exception, see Saffle, 494 U. S., at 495—because "both cases rest upon this Court's belief that certain procedural protections are essential to prevent a miscarriage of justice," Brief for Petitioner 35 (citations omitted). We disagree.4 Unlike the sweeping rule of Gideon, which established an affirmative right to counsel in all felony cases, the narrow right of rebuttal that Simmons affords to defendants in a limited class of capital cases has hardly " ' "alter[ed] our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements" ' essential to the fairness of a proceeding." Sawyer, 497 U. S., at 242 (quoting Teague, supra, at 311, quoting, in turn, Mackey v. United States, 401 U. S. 667, 693 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring in judgments in part and dissenting in part) (emphasis in Teague)). Simmons possesses little of the "watershed" character envisioned by Teague's second exception.
Christy, 540 Pa. 192, 215-217, 656 A. 2d 877, 888-889, cert. denied, 516 U. S. 872 (1995).
4 It is by no means inevitable that, absent application of the rule of Simmons, "miscarriage[s] of justice" will occur. We note, for example, that at the time he was sentenced to death for Helen Schartner's murder, petitioner had already been convicted of a murder committed while he was in prison. Informing his sentencing jury that petitioner would spend the rest of his days in prison would not, then, necessarily have rebutted an argument that he presented a continuing danger.
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