Cite as: 530 U. S. 156 (2000)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
1998). The Court of Appeals reversed. 187 F. 3d, at 407. When Ramdass filed a third petition for a writ of certiorari, we stayed his execution, 528 U. S. 1015 (1999), and granted certiorari, 528 U. S. 1068 (2000). Ramdass contends he was entitled to a jury instruction of parole ineligibility under the Virginia three-strikes law. Rejecting the contention, we now affirm.
II
Petitioner bases his request for habeas corpus relief on Simmons, supra. The premise of the Simmons case was that, under South Carolina law, the capital defendant would be ineligible for parole if the jury were to vote for a life sentence. Future dangerousness being at issue, the plurality opinion concluded that due process entitled the defendant to inform the jury of parole ineligibility, either by a jury instruction or in arguments by counsel. In our later decision in O'Dell v. Netherland, 521 U. S. 151, 166 (1997), we held that Simmons created a new rule for purposes of Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989). O'Dell reaffirmed that the States have some discretion in determining the extent to which a sentencing jury should be advised of probable future custody and parole status in a future dangerousness case, subject to the rule of Simmons. We have not extended Simmons to cases where parole ineligibility has not been established as a matter of state law at the time of the jury's future dangerousness deliberations in a capital case.
Whether Ramdass may obtain relief under Simmons is governed by the habeas corpus statute, 28 U. S. C. § 2254(d)(1) (1994 ed., Supp. III), which forbids relief unless the state-court adjudication of a federal claim "resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States." As explained in Justice O'Connor's opinion for the Court in Williams v. Taylor, 529 U. S. 362, 412-413 (2000), a state court acts contrary to clearly established federal law if it applies a legal rule
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