Cite as: 518 U. S. 152 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
defendant has had no opportunity to consider or rebut. Ruffalo deals with a defendant's right to notice of the charges against him. Whether or not Ruffalo might have supported petitioner's notice-of-evidence claim, see infra, at 169-170, it does not support the misrepresentation claim for which petitioner cites it. Mooney forbade the prosecution to engage in "a deliberate deception of court and jury." 294 U. S., at 112. Raley, though involving no deliberate deception, held that defendants who detrimentally relied on the assurance of a committee chairman could not be punished for having done so. Mooney, of course, would lend support to petitioner's claim if it could be shown that the prosecutor deliberately misled him, not just that he changed his mind over the course of the trial. The two claims are separate.
B
The Commonwealth argues that the misrepresentation claim "was never argued before in any court." Brief for Respondent 39. If petitioner never presented this claim on direct appeal or in state habeas proceedings, federal habeas review of the claim would be barred unless petitioner could demonstrate cause and prejudice for his failure to raise the claim in state proceedings. Supra, at 161-162. If the claim was not raised or addressed in federal proceedings, below, our usual practice would be to decline to review it. Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 533 (1992).
There is some ambiguity as to whether the misrepresentation claim was raised or addressed in the District Court or the Court of Appeals. On the one hand, the District Court ordered relief primarily on the basis of Gardner, i. e., lack of notice. Supra, at 160. On the other hand, some of the District Court findings advert to a deliberate decision by the prosecutor to mislead petitioner's counsel for tactical advantage. See, e. g., App. 348, 350. The ambiguity in the federal record complicates the state-court procedural default issue, because procedural default is an affirmative defense for the
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