Gray v. Netherland, 518 U.S. 152, 3 (1996)

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154

GRAY v. NETHERLAND

Syllabus

quires that he receive more than a day's notice of the Commonwealth's evidence. He must also show that due process required a continuance whether or not he sought one, or that, if he chose not to seek a continuance, exclusion was the only appropriate remedy. Only the adoption of a new constitutional rule could establish these propositions. A defendant has the right to notice of the charges against which he must defend. In re Ruffalo, supra. However, he does not have a constitutional right to notice of the evidence which the state plans to use to prove the charges, and Brady, which addressed only exculpatory evidence, did not create one. Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U. S. 545, 559. Gardner v. Florida, supra, distinguished. Even if notice were required, exclusion of evidence is not the sole remedy for a violation of such a right, since a continuance could minimize prejudice. Taylor v. Illinois, 484 U. S. 400, 413. Petitioner made no such request here, and in view of his insistence on exclusion, the trial court might well have felt that it would have been interfering with counsel's tactical decision to order a continuance on its own motion. Pp. 166-170. (b) The new rule petitioner proposes does not fall within Teague's second exception, which is for watershed rules of criminal procedure implicating a criminal proceeding's fundamental fairness and accuracy. Whatever one may think of the importance of petitioner's proposed rule, it has none of the primacy and centrality of the rule adopted in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335, or other rules which may be thought to be within the exception. Saffle v. Parks, 494 U. S. 484, 495. P. 170. 58 F. 3d 59, vacated and remanded.

Rehnquist, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas, JJ., joined. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, post, p. 171. Ginsburg, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Stevens, Souter, and Breyer, JJ., joined, post, p. 171.

Mark Evan Olive, by appointment of the Court, 516 U. S. 1170, argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Donald R. Lee, Jr., Paul G. Turner, and John H. Blume.

John H. McLees, Jr., Assistant Attorney General of Virginia, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were James S. Gilmore III, Attorney General, and David E. Anderson, Chief Deputy Attorney General.*

*Kent S. Scheidegger filed a brief for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation as amicus curiae urging affirmance.

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