The following excerpt is from Styers v. Ryan, 811 F.3d 292 (9th Cir. 2015):
When a constitutional rule is announced, its requirements apply to defendants whose convictions or sentences are pending on direct review or not otherwise final. Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 323, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987). The rule announced in Ring, under which "[c]apital defendants are entitled ... to a jury determination of any fact on which the legislature conditions an increase in their maximum punishment," Ring, 536 U.S. at 589, 122 S.Ct. 2428 is a procedural rule that applies to capital defendants on direct review, see Schriro v. Summerlin, 542 U.S. 348, 358, 124 S.Ct. 2519, 159 L.Ed.2d 442 (2004).
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