Cite as: 518 U. S. 152 (1996)
Opinion of the Court
much more akin to the one rejected in Weatherford, supra, than to the one upheld in Gardner.
Even were our cases otherwise on the notice issue, we have acknowledged that exclusion of evidence is not the sole remedy for a violation of a conceded right to notice of an alibi witness. In Taylor v. Illinois, 484 U. S. 400 (1988), we said that in this situation "a less drastic sanction is always available. Prejudice . . . could be minimized by granting a continuance." Id., at 413. Here, counsel did not request a continuance; he argued only for exclusion. Counsel argued that the evidence should be excluded not only because he was not prepared to contest the evidence, but also because it exceeded the standard in Virginia, Watkins v. Commonwealth, 229 Va. 469, 331 S. E. 2d 422 (1985), for relevance of unsolved-crime evidence to sentencing. See 18 Record 723. In view of petitioner's insistence on exclusion of the evidence, the trial court might well have felt that it would have been interfering with a tactical decision of counsel to order a continuance on its own motion.
The dissent argues that petitioner seeks the benefit of a well-established rule, that "a capital defendant must be afforded a meaningful opportunity to explain or deny the evidence introduced against him at sentencing." Post, at 180. Because we disagree with the dissent's assertion that petitioner moved for a continuance, we disagree with its characterization of the constitutional rule underlying his claim for relief. Compare supra, at 166-167, and n. 4, with post, at 184-185, n. 11. The dissent glosses over the similarities between this case and Weatherford, which " 'dictate[s],'" post, at 180, the disposition of petitioner's claim— adversely to petitioner—more clearly than any precedent cited by the dissent. But even without Weatherford and petitioner's failure to move for a continuance, we would still think the new-rule doctrine "would be meaningless if applied at this level of generality." Sawyer v. Smith, 497 U. S. 227, 236 (1990). We therefore hold that petitioner's notice-of-
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