Cite as: 518 U. S. 152 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
repeat his statement that petitioner had admitted to committing the murders.3 See App. 340; 14 Record 8-9. He nonetheless contends that he was deprived of adequate notice of the other witnesses, the police officer and the medical examiner who had investigated the Sorrell murders, whom he was advised that the prosecutor would call only on the evening before the sentencing hearing. App. 342; 18 Record 777. But petitioner did not attempt to cure this inadequacy of notice by requesting more time to respond to this evidence. He instead moved "to have excluded from evidence during this penalty trial any evidence pertaining to any other—any felony for which the defendant has not yet been charged." 4 Id., at 776.
On these facts, for petitioner to prevail on his notice-of-evidence claim, he must establish that due process requires that he receive more than a day's notice of the Commonwealth's evidence. He must also establish 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 for the inadequate notice. We conclude that only the adoption of a new constitutional rule could establish these propositions.
A defendant's right to notice of the charges against which he must defend is well established. In re Ruffalo, 390 U. S.
3 When petitioner did object later, at the start of the penalty phase, to the admission of all the Sorrell murder evidence, counsel conceded that he would have been prepared to refute such evidence if it had consisted only of testimony by Tucker or petitioner's fellow inmates that petitioner had admitted to killing the Sorrells. See 18 Record 722, 780.
4 The District Court described petitioner's counsel as having made a "plea for additional time to prepare." App. 343. The Court of Appeals found this plea insufficient to have legal effect in court: "If the defense felt unprepared to undertake effective cross-examination, one would think a formal motion for continuance would have been forthcoming, but none was ever made; counsel moved only that the evidence be excluded." Gray v. Thompson, 58 F. 3d 59, 64 (CA4 1995). We agree with the Court of Appeals.
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