Cite as: 518 U. S. 152 (1996)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
The District Court concluded that Gray was stripped of any meaningful opportunity to explain or deny the Sorrell murders evidence, for his lawyers were unfairly "ambushed"— clearly surprised and devastatingly disarmed by the prosecutor's decision, announced on the eve of the penalty trial, to introduce extensive evidence other than Gray's statements. App. 349-351. Gray's counsel reasonably relied on the prosecutor's unequivocal "statements only" pledge, see id., at 342, made at the outset of trial; based on the prosecutor's assurances, defense counsel spent no resources tracking down information in police records on the Sorrell murders. The prosecutor's switch, altogether unanticipated by defense counsel, left them with no chance to uncover, through their own investigation, information that could have defused the prosecutor's case, in short, without time to prepare an effective defense. Id., at 351.
The Fourth Circuit recast Gray's claim, transforming it into an assertion of a broad constitutional right to discovery in capital cases. See 58 F. 3d, at 64-65. This Court also restates and reshapes Gray's claim. The Court first slices Gray's whole claim into pieces; it then deals discretely with each segment it "perceive[s]," ante, at 162: a "misrepresentation" claim, ante, at 166; and a supposed "notice-of-evidence" claim, ante, at 166-170. Gray, himself, however, has "never claimed a constitutional right to advance discovery of the Commonwealth's evidence." Brief for Petitioner 46, n. 37, and accompanying text. His own claim is more basic and should not succumb to artificial endeavors to divide and conquer it.
There is nothing "new" in a rule that capital defendants must be afforded a meaningful opportunity to defend against the State's penalty phase evidence. As this Court affirmed more than a century ago: "Common justice requires that no man shall be condemned in his person or property without . . . an opportunity to make his defence." Baldwin v. Hale, 1 Wall. 223, 233 (1864). See also Windsor v. McVeigh, 93
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