Samia v. United States

                   PRELIMINARY PRINT

             Volume 599 U. S. Part 1
                             Pages 635–669




       OFFICIAL REPORTS
                                    OF


   THE SUPREME COURT
                               June 23, 2023


Page Proof Pending Publication


                   REBECCA A. WOMELDORF
                           reporter of decisions




    NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before
  the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notify the Reporter
  of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C. 20543,
  pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors.
                        OCTOBER TERM, 2022                             635

                                 Syllabus


         SAMIA, aka SAMIC v. UNITED STATES

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for
                 the second circuit
      No. 22–196. Argued March 29, 2023—Decided June 23, 2023
Petitioner Adam Samia, along with Joseph Hunter and Carl Stillwell, was
  arrested by the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration and charged
  with a variety of offenses related to the murder-for-hire of Catherine
  Lee, a real-estate broker. The Government tried all three defendants
  jointly in the Southern District of New York. Prior to trial, the Gov-
  ernment moved to admit Stillwell's postarrest confession in which he
  admitted that he had been in the van in which Lee was killed, but he
  claimed that Samia had shot Lee. Since Stillwell would not be testify-
  ing on his own behalf and the full confession implicated Samia, the Gov-
  ernment proposed that the confession be introduced through the testi-
  mony of a DEA agent, who would testify to the content of Stillwell's
  confession in a way that eliminated Samia's name while avoiding any
  obvious indications of redaction. The District Court granted the Gov-
Page Proof Pending Publication
  ernment's motion with additional alterations to conform to its under-
  standing of this Court's Confrontation Clause precedents.
     At trial, the Government's theory of the case was that Hunter had
  hired Samia and Stillwell to pose as real-estate buyers and visit proper-
  ties with Lee and that Samia, Stillwell, and Lee were in a van driven
  by Stillwell when Samia shot Lee. As part of the Government's case
  in chief, a DEA agent testifed that Stillwell had confessed to “a time
  when the other person he was with pulled the trigger on that woman in
  a van that he and Mr. Stillwell was driving.” (Emphasis added.)
  Other portions of the agent's testimony recounting Stillwell's confession
  used the “other person” descriptor to refer to someone with whom Still-
  well had traveled and lived and who carried a particular frearm. Both
  before the agent's testimony and again prior to deliberations, the Dis-
  trict Court instructed the jury that the agent's testimony about Still-
  well's confession was admissible only as to Stillwell and should not be
  considered as to Samia or Hunter. Samia and his codefendants were
  convicted on all counts. On appeal, Samia argued that the admission of
  Stillwell's confession was constitutional error because other evidence
  and statements at trial enabled the jury to immediately infer that the
  “other person” described in the confession was Samia himself. The Sec-
  ond Circuit, pointing to the established practice of replacing a defend-
  ant's name with a neutral noun or pronoun in a nontestifying codefend-
636                   SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                                 Syllabus

  ant's confession, held that the admission of Stillwell's confession did not
  violate Samia's Confrontation Clause rights.
Held: The Confrontation Clause was not violated by the admission of a
 nontestifying codefendant's confession that did not directly inculpate the
 defendant and was subject to a proper limiting instruction. Pp. 643–655.
    (a) Stillwell's formal, Mirandized confession to authorities is testimo-
 nial and thus falls within the ambit of the Sixth Amendment's Confron-
 tation Clause, which forbids the introduction of out-of-court “testimo-
 nial” statements unless the witness is unavailable and the defendant has
 had the chance to cross-examine the witness previously. See Crawford
 v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36, 52–54. The Clause, however, applies only
 to witnesses “against the accused.” Id., at 50. And “[o]rdinarily, a wit-
 ness whose testimony is introduced at a joint trial is not considered to
 be a witness `against' a defendant if the jury is instructed to consider
 that testimony only against a codefendant.” Richardson v. Marsh, 481
 U. S. 200, 206. This general rule is consistent with the Clause's text,
 historical practice, and the law's reliance on limiting instructions in
 other contexts. Pp. 643–647.
       (1) Longstanding practice permitted a nontestifying codefendant's
 confession to be admitted in a joint trial so long as the jury was properly
Page Proof Pending Publication
 instructed not to consider it against the nonconfessing defendant. This
 practice is identifed in early treatises, see, e. g., S. Phillipps, Law of
 Evidence 82; in the early cases of this Court, see, e. g., Sparf v. United
 States, 156 U. S. 51, 58; United States v. Ball, 163 U. S. 662, 672; and in
 many States with a similar constitutional right of confrontation, see,
 e. g., State v. Workman, 15 S. C. 540, 545. Notably, none of these trea-
 tises or cases suggests that a confession naming a codefendant must in
 all cases be altered to refer to “another person” (or something similar).
 Thus, while it is unclear that any alteration to Stillwell's confession was
 necessary, historical practice suggests that altering a nontestifying co-
 defendant's confession not to name the defendant, coupled with a limit-
 ing instruction, was enough to permit the introduction of such confes-
 sions at least as an evidentiary matter. Pp. 644–646.
       (2) This historical practice is in accord with the law's broader as-
 sumption that jurors will “ `attend closely the particular language of
 [limiting] instructions in a criminal case and strive to understand, make
 sense of, and follow' ” them. United States v. Olano, 507 U. S. 725, 740.
 And the presumption that jurors follow limiting instructions applies to
 statements that are substantially more credible and inculpatory than a
 codefendant's confession. See, e. g., Harris v. New York, 401 U. S. 222,
 223–225. To disregard or to make unnecessary exceptions to this prin-
 ciple “would make inroads into th[e] entire complex code of . . . criminal
                      Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)                     637

                                Syllabus

 evidentiary law, and would threaten other large areas of trial jurispru-
 dence.” Spencer v. Texas, 385 U. S. 554, 562. Pp. 646–647.
    (b) The Court in Bruton v. United States, 391 U. S. 123, “recognized
 a narrow exception to” the presumption that juries follow their instruc-
 tions, holding “that a defendant is deprived of his Sixth Amendment
 right of confrontation when the facially incriminating confession of a
 nontestifying codefendant is introduced at their joint trial,” even with
 a proper instruction. Richardson, 481 U. S., at 207. In Bruton, the
 prosecution introduced a confession by Bruton's codefendant that impli-
 cated Bruton by name. The Court held that the confession's introduc-
 tion substantially threatened Bruton's right to confront the witnesses
 against him, reasoning that “there are some contexts in which the risk
 that the jury will not, or cannot, follow instructions is so great, and the
 consequences of failure so vital to the defendant, that the practical and
 human limitations of the jury system cannot be ignored.” 391 U. S.,
 at 135.
    In Richardson v. Marsh, the Court “decline[d] to extend [Bruton]
 further” to “confessions that do not name the defendant.” 481 U. S., at
 211. Richardson involved a redacted confession that “was not incrimi-
 nating on its face, and became so only when linked with evidence intro-
 duced later at trial.” Id., at 208. In such cases of inferential incrimi-
Page Proof Pending Publication
 nation, the Court posited that “the judge's instruction may well be
 successful in dissuading the jury from entering onto the path of infer-
 ence.” Ibid.
    The Court in Gray v. Maryland, 523 U. S. 185, 194, later qualifed
 Richardson by holding that certain obviously redacted confessions
 might be “directly accusatory,” and thus fall within Bruton's rule, even
 if they did not specifcally use a defendant's name. Gray involved
 whether admission of a co-defendant's confession altered “by substitut-
 ing for the defendant's name in the confession a blank space or the word
 `deleted' ” violated the Confrontation Clause. Id., at 188. The Court
 in Gray concluded that, when a redacted confession “simply replace[s] a
 name with an obvious blank space or a word such as `deleted' or a sym-
 bol or other similarly obvious indications of alteration,” the evidence “so
 closely resemble[s] Bruton's unredacted statements that . . . the law
 must require the same result.” Id., at 192. Pp. 647–652.
    (c) The Court's precedents in this area distinguish between confes-
 sions that directly implicate a defendant and those that do so indirectly.
 Accordingly, neither Bruton, Richardson, nor Gray provides license to
 fyspeck trial transcripts in search of evidence that could give rise to a
 collateral inference that a defendant was named in an altered confession.
 Here, the District Court's admission of Stillwell's confession, accompa-
 nied by a limiting instruction, did not run afoul of this Court's prece-
638                    SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                                  Syllabus

  dents. Stillwell's confession was redacted to avoid naming Samia, sat-
  isfying Bruton's rule. And, it was not obviously redacted in a manner
  resembling the confession in Gray; the neutral references to some “other
  person” were not akin to an obvious blank or the word “deleted.”
  Pp. 652–654.
     (d) Expanding Bruton in the way Samia proposes would be inconsist-
  ent with longstanding practice and this Court's precedents, would work
  an unnecessary and imprudent change in law, and would require federal
  and state trial courts to conduct extensive pretrial hearings. Because
  it would be impractical to fully police juror inferences, the likely practi-
  cal consequence of extending Bruton here would be to mandate sever-
  ance whenever the prosecution wishes to introduce the confession of a
  nontestifying codefendant in a joint trial. But, as the Court has ob-
  served, that is “too high” a price to pay. Richardson, 481 U. S., at 210.
  Samia's proposal is not compelled by the Confrontation Clause, and it
  ignores both the “vital role” joint trials play in the criminal justice sys-
  tem, and the fact that confessions are “ `essential to society's compelling
  interest in fnding, convicting, and punishing those who violate the
  law.' ” Id., at 209–210. Pp. 654–655.
Affrmed.

Page
  Thomas, J.,Proof
             delivered the Pending
                           opinion of the Court, Publication
                                                 in which Roberts, C. J.,
and Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined, and in which Barrett,
J., joined as to all but Part II–A. Barrett, J., fled an opinion concurring
in part and concurring in the judgment, post, p. 655. Kagan, J., fled a
dissenting opinion, in which Sotomayor and Jackson, JJ., joined, post,
p. 657. Jackson, J., fled a dissenting opinion, post, p. 667.

   Kannon K. Shanmugam argued the cause for petitioner.
With him on the briefs were William T. Marks, Brian M.
Lipshutz, and Matteo Godi.
   Caroline A. Flynn argued the cause for the United States.
With her on the brief were Solicitor General Prelogar, As-
sistant Attorney General Polite, Deputy Solicitor General
Feigin, and Kevin J. Barber.*

  *Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were fled for Law Professors
by Brandon Duke; for the National Association of Criminal Defense Law-
yers et al. by Jonathan Y. Ellis, Gregory J. DuBoff, Jeffrey L. Fisher, and
David D. Cole; for the New York Council of Defense Lawyers by Harry
Sandick; and for Retired Federal Judges et al. by Ginger D. Anders and
Xiaonan April Hu. Michael R. Huston, David Watnick, Keith M. Do-
                      Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)                 639

                         Opinion of the Court

   Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.
  Prosecutors have long tried criminal defendants jointly in
cases where the defendants are alleged to have engaged in a
common criminal scheme. However, when prosecutors seek
to introduce a nontestifying defendant's confession implicat-
ing his codefendants, a constitutional concern may arise.
The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment states
that, “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy
the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against
him.” And, in Bruton v. United States, 391 U. S. 123 (1968),
this Court “held that a defendant is deprived of his rights
under the Confrontation Clause when his nontestifying co-
defendant's confession naming him as a participant in the
crime is introduced at their joint trial, even if the jury is in-
structed to consider that confession only against the codefend-
ant.” Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U. S. 200, 201–202 (1987).

Page        Proof
noghue, and Stacie Fahsel Pending
                          fled a brief for the Publication
                                               National Association of
Federal Defenders as amicus curiae urging vacatur.
   A brief of amici curiae urging affrmance was fled for the Common-
wealth of Pennsylvania et al. by Michelle A. Henry, Acting Attorney Gen-
eral of Pennsylvania, Ronald Eisenberg, Chief Deputy Attorney General,
James A. Donahue III, First Deputy Attorney General, Susan E. Af-
fronti, Senior Deputy Attorney General, and Michele K. Walsh, Executive
Deputy Attorney General, by Patrick J. Griffn, Chief State's Attorney of
Connecticut, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as
follows: Steve Marshall of Alabama, Treg Taylor of Alaska, Tim Griffn
of Arkansas, Phil Weiser of Colorado, Kathleen Jennings of Delaware,
Ashley Moody of Florida, Christopher M. Carr of Georgia, Raúl R. Labra-
dor of Idaho, Brenna Bird of Iowa, Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, Jeff
Landry of Louisiana, Aaron M. Frey of Maine, Anthony G. Brown of
Maryland, Dana Nessel of Michigan, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Lynn
Fitch of Mississippi, Aaron D. Ford of Nevada, John M. Formella of New
Hampshire, Matthew J. Platkin of New Jersey, Josh Stein of North Caro-
lina, Drew H. Wrigley of North Dakota, Dave Yost of Ohio, Gentner F.
Drummond of Oklahoma, Ellen F. Rosenblum of Oregon, Alan Wilson of
South Carolina, Marty J. Jackley of South Dakota, Jonathan Skrmetti of
Tennessee, Sean D. Reyes of Utah, Charity R. Clark of Vermont, and
Jason S. Miyares of Virginia.
640               SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Opinion of the Court

   Here, we must determine whether the Confrontation
Clause bars the admission of a nontestifying codefendant's
confession where (1) the confession has been modifed to
avoid directly identifying the nonconfessing codefendant and
(2) the court offers a limiting instruction that jurors may
consider the confession only with respect to the confessing
codefendant. Considering longstanding historical practice,
the general presumption that jurors follow their instructions,
and the relevant precedents of this Court, we conclude that
it does not.
                               I
   Petitioner Adam Samia traveled to the Philippines in 2012
to work for crime lord Paul LeRoux. While there, LeRoux
tasked Samia, Joseph Hunter, and Carl Stillwell with killing
Catherine Lee, a local real-estate broker who LeRoux be-
lieved had stolen money from him. Lee was found dead
shortly thereafter, shot twice in the face at close range.
Page Proof Pending Publication
   Later that year, LeRoux was arrested by the U. S. Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) and became a cooperat-
ing witness for the Government. Hunter, Samia, and Still-
well were arrested thereafter. During a search of Samia's
home, law enforcement found a camera containing surveil-
lance photographs of Lee's home as well as a key to the van
in which Lee had been murdered. And, during Stillwell's
arrest, law enforcement found a cell phone containing thumb-
nail images of Lee's dead body. Later, during a postarrest
interview with DEA agents, Stillwell waived his rights
under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966), and gave a
confession. Stillwell admitted that he had been in the van
when Lee was killed, but he claimed that he was only the
driver and that Samia had shot Lee.
   The Government charged all three men in a multicount
indictment. Samia and Stillwell were each charged with
conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, in violation of 18
U. S. C. § 1958(a); murder-for-hire, in violation of § 1958(a);
conspiracy to murder and kidnap in a foreign country, in vio-
                       Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)                   641

                          Opinion of the Court

lation of § 956(a)(1); causing death with a frearm during and
in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of §§ 924(c)
(1)(A) and ( j); and conspiracy to launder money, in violation
of § 1956(h). Hunter was charged with all but the money-
laundering count. Thereafter, the Government tried all
three men jointly in the Southern District of New York.
While Hunter and Stillwell admitted that they had partici-
pated in the murder, Samia maintained his innocence.
   Prior to trial, the Government moved in limine to admit
Stillwell's confession. But, because Stillwell would not tes-
tify and the full confession inculpated Samia, the Govern-
ment proposed that an agent testify as to the content of Still-
well's confession in a way that eliminated Samia's name while
avoiding any obvious indications of redaction. The District
Court granted the Government's motion but required fur-
ther alterations to ensure consistency with its understanding
of this Court's Confrontation Clause precedents, including
Page Proof Pending Publication
Bruton.1
   At trial, the Government's theory of the case was that
Hunter had hired Samia and Stillwell to pose as real-estate
buyers and visit properties with Lee. The Government also
sought to prove that Samia, Stillwell, and Lee were in a van
that Stillwell was driving when Samia shot Lee. During its
case in chief, in accordance with the court's ruling on its
motion in limine, the Government presented testimony
about Stillwell's confession through DEA Agent Eric Stouch.
Stouch recounted the key portion of Stillwell's confession im-
plicating Samia as follows:
     “Q. Did [Stillwell] say where [the victim] was when she
     was killed?

  1
    This Court has never opined as to whether rewriting a confession may
serve as a proper method of redaction. See Richardson v. Marsh, 481
U. S. 200, 203, n. 1 (1987). Because the parties do not argue that the
District Court's imposition of further redactions was inappropriate in this
case, we do not consider the issue here either.
642                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Opinion of the Court

      “A. Yes. He described a time when the other person he
      was with pulled the trigger on that woman in a van that
      he and Mr. Stillwell was driving.” App. 76 (emphasis
      added).
Other portions of Stouch's testimony also used the “other
person” descriptor to refer to someone with whom Stillwell
had traveled and lived and who carried a particular frearm.
During Stouch's testimony, the District Court instructed the
jury that his testimony was admissible only as to Stillwell
and should not be considered as to Samia or Hunter. The
District Court later provided a similar limiting instruction
before the jury began its deliberations.
  The jury convicted Samia and his codefendants on all
counts, and the District Court subsequently denied Samia's
post-trial motions. The District Court then sentenced
Samia to life plus 10 years' imprisonment.
  Samia appealed to the Second Circuit. On appeal, and as
Page Proof Pending Publication
relevant here, he argued that the admission of Stillwell's con-
fession—even as altered and with a limiting instruction—
was constitutional error because other evidence and state-
ments at trial enabled the jury to immediately infer that the
“other person” described in the confession was Samia him-
self. He noted that, during opening statements, the Govern-
ment had asserted that Stillwell drove the van while Samia
“was in the passenger seat,” and that Samia pulled out a gun,
“turned around, aimed carefully and shot [Lee].” Id., at 52.
He also pointed out that the Government had stated that
“Stillwell admitted to driving the car while the man he was
with turned around and shot [Lee].” Id., at 58. So, even
though Samia's position in the van and shooting of Lee were
relevant to the Government's theory of the case with or with-
out Stillwell's confession, Samia argued that those state-
ments would allow the jury to infer that he was the “other
person” in Stillwell's confession.
  Samia made the same argument with respect to several
pieces of trial evidence. For example, he pointed out that
                    Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)             643

                       Opinion of the Court

the Government had elicited testimony that Samia and Still-
well coordinated their travel to the Philippines and lived to-
gether there. Samia noted that there was testimony that he
had the type of gun that was used to shoot Lee. And, he
emphasized that, in its closing argument, the Government
argued to the jury that video evidence showing Hunter
speaking about hiring two men to murder Lee was “admissi-
ble against all three defendants,” allowing the jury to infer
that Samia and Stillwell were co-conspirators. Id., at 199.
Finally, Samia argued that, while discussing Stillwell's con-
fession, the prosecution had recounted how Stillwell “de-
scribed a time when the other person he was with [in the
Philippines] pulled the trigger on that woman in a van that
Stillwell was driving.” Ibid.
   The Second Circuit rejected Samia's view, holding that the
admission of Stillwell's confession did not violate Samia's
Confrontation Clause rights. Applying Circuit precedent, it
pointed to the established practice of replacing a defendant's
Page Proof Pending Publication
name with a neutral noun or pronoun in a nontestifying co-
defendant's confession. The Second Circuit also noted that
its inquiry considered the altered confession separate from
the other evidence that had been introduced at trial.
   We granted certiorari to determine whether the admission
of Stillwell's altered confession, subject to a limiting instruc-
tion, violated Samia's rights under the Confrontation Clause.
598 U. S. ––– (2022).
                                II
  The Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause guarantees
the right of a criminal defendant “to be confronted with the
witnesses against him.” As we have explained, this Clause
forbids the introduction of out-of-court “testimonial” state-
ments unless the witness is unavailable and the defendant
has had the chance to cross-examine the witness previously.
See Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36, 53–54 (2004). Be-
cause Stillwell's formal, Mirandized confession to authorities,
which the Government sought to introduce at trial, is testi-
644                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Opinion of the Court

monial, it falls within the Clause's ambit. See id., at 52
(“Statements taken by police offcers in the course of interro-
gations are . . . testimonial under even a narrow standard”);
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U. S. 305, 329 (2009)
(Thomas, J., concurring) (explaining that “the Confrontation
Clause is implicated by extrajudicial statements . . . con-
tained in formalized testimonial materials, such as affda-
vits, depositions, prior testimony, or confessions” (internal
quotation marks omitted)). Nonetheless, the Confrontation
Clause applies only to witnesses “against the accused.”
Crawford, 541 U. S., at 50. And, “[o]rdinarily, a witness
whose testimony is introduced at a joint trial is not consid-
ered to be a witness `against' a defendant if the jury is in-
structed to consider that testimony only against a codefend-
ant.” Richardson, 481 U. S., at 206. This general rule is
consistent with the text of the Clause, historical practice, and
the law's reliance on limiting instructions in other contexts.

Page Proof Pending
              A    Publication
   For most of our Nation's history, longstanding practice al-
lowed a nontestifying codefendant's confession to be ad-
mitted in a joint trial so long as the jury was properly in-
structed not to consider it against the nonconfessing
defendant. While some courts would omit the defendant's
name or substitute a reference to “another person” (or the
like), it is unclear whether any courts considered such alter-
ations to be necessary as a categorical matter. In any event,
the combination of such alterations and an appropriate limit-
ing instruction was generally suffcient to permit the intro-
duction of such confessions.
   One early treatise explained that, when “some part of [a
confession] concerns other prisoners who are tried on the
same indictment,” “all that can be done is to direct the jury
not to take into their consideration such parts as affect the
other prisoners.” S. Phillipps, Law of Evidence 82 (1816).
Another noted that, in English practice, where confessions
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)             645

                      Opinion of the Court

were not admissible against third persons, “the names of
such persons were by most judges ordered to be omitted,”
but “by other judges the names were ordered read and the
jury instructed not to use the confession against them.”
3 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2100, p. 2841, and n. 5 (1904). “In
the United States[,] the latter practice [was] favored.” Id.,
n. 5.
   Considerable authority supports this approach. In Sparf
v. United States, 156 U. S. 51, 58 (1895), the Court held that,
because codefendant declarations “were not, in any view of
the case, competent evidence against” another defendant, the
trial court should have admitted them as evidence only
against their respective declarants. Just one year later, in
United States v. Ball, 163 U. S. 662, 672 (1896), a case involv-
ing a joint murder trial of three defendants, the Court ap-
proved the use of a limiting instruction to restrict the jury's
consideration of one defendant's incriminatory statements
Page Proof Pending Publication
made after the killing had occurred. Citing Sparf, the
Court emphasized that the trial judge had “said, in the pres-
ence of the jury, that, of course, [the one defendant's declara-
tions] would be only evidence against him.” 163 U. S., at
672. State practice was in accord, permitting the introduc-
tion of nontestifying codefendants' confessions subject only
to a limiting instruction. See, e. g., State v. Workman, 15
S. C. 540, 545 (1881); Jones v. Commonwealth, 72 Va. 836,
839–840 (1878). And, though the Federal Confrontation
Clause did not apply to these proceedings, state constitutions
contained similar terms. See 5 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 1397,
pp. 155–158, n. 1 (J. Chadbourn rev. 1974) (noting that virtu-
ally every state constitution during the relevant period con-
tained a provision substantially equivalent to the Federal
Confrontation Clause).
   Notably, none of the early treatises or cases to which the
parties have referred, or that we have discovered, suggests
that a confession naming a codefendant must in all cases be
edited to refer to “another person” (or something similar)
646                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                       Opinion of the Court

such that the codefendant's name is not included in the con-
fession. Accordingly, while it is unclear whether alteration
of any kind was necessary, historical practice suggests at
least that altering a nontestifying codefendant's confession
not to name the defendant, coupled with a limiting instruc-
tion, was enough to permit the introduction of such confes-
sions at least as an evidentiary matter.

                                B
   This historical evidentiary practice is in accord with the
law's broader assumption that jurors can be relied upon to
follow the trial judge's instructions. Evidence at trial is
often admitted for a limited purpose, accompanied by a limit-
ing instruction. And, our legal system presumes that jurors
will “ `attend closely the particular language of [such] instruc-
tions in a criminal case and strive to understand, make sense
of, and follow' ” them. United States v. Olano, 507 U. S. 725,
Page Proof Pending Publication
740 (1993).
   The Court has presumed, for example, that jurors will fol-
low instructions to consider a defendant's prior conviction
only for purposes of a sentence enhancement and not in de-
termining whether he committed the criminal acts charged.
Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U. S. 422, 438, and n. 6 (1983).
This presumption works in tandem with a defendant's Fifth
Amendment right not to testify against himself, by ensuring
that jurors do not draw an adverse inference from his choice
not to testify. Lakeside v. Oregon, 435 U. S. 333, 338–341
(1978). It also applies to situations with potentially life-and-
death stakes for defendants: A limiting instruction may be
used to instruct jurors to consider mitigating evidence for
purposes of one defendant and not another at the sentencing
stage of a joint capital trial. Kansas v. Carr, 577 U. S. 108,
124–125 (2016).
   Of particular relevance here, the presumption that jurors
follow limiting instructions applies to statements that are
often substantially more credible and inculpatory than a co-
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)            647

                      Opinion of the Court

defendant's confession. For example, this Court has held
that statements elicited from a defendant in violation of Mi-
randa can be used to impeach the defendant's credibility,
provided the jury is properly instructed not to consider them
as evidence of guilt. Harris v. New York, 401 U. S. 222, 223–
225 (1971). Such statements, elicited from the defendant
himself, are often some of the most compelling evidence of
guilt available to a jury. By contrast, jurors may cast a crit-
ical eye on accomplice testimony—and, in particular, self-
serving accomplice testimony like Stillwell's that accuses an-
other of the most culpable conduct.
   The presumption credits jurors by refusing to assume that
they are either “too ignorant to comprehend, or were too
unmindful of their duty to respect, instructions” of the court.
Pennsylvania Co. v. Roy, 102 U. S. 451, 459 (1880). More-
over, to disregard or to make unnecessary exceptions to it
“would make inroads into th[e] entire complex code of . . .
criminal evidentiary law, and would threaten other large
Page Proof Pending Publication
areas of trial jurisprudence.” Spencer v. Texas, 385 U. S.
554, 562 (1967). As explained below, we have no reason to
do so here.
                             III
  In Bruton v. United States, this Court “recognized a nar-
row exception to” the presumption that juries follow their
instructions, holding “that a defendant is deprived of his
Sixth Amendment right of confrontation when the facially
incriminating confession of a nontestifying codefendant is in-
troduced at their joint trial,” even with a proper instruction.
Richardson, 481 U. S., at 207. In Richardson v. Marsh, the
Court “decline[d] to extend [Bruton] further” to “confessions
that do not name the defendant.” Id., at 211. Gray v.
Maryland, 523 U. S. 185, 194 (1998), later qualifed Richard-
son by holding that certain obviously redacted confessions
might be “directly accusatory,” and thus fall within Bruton's
rule, even if they did not specifcally use a defendant's
name.
648                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Opinion of the Court

   Thus, the Court's precedents distinguish between confes-
sions that directly implicate a defendant and those that do
so indirectly. Under these precedents, and consistent with
the longstanding historical practice discussed above, the in-
troduction here of Stillwell's altered confession coupled with
a limiting instruction did not violate the Confrontation
Clause.
                               A
                               1
   In Bruton, the Court considered the joint trial of George
Bruton and William Evans for armed postal robbery. 391
U. S., at 124. During two pretrial interrogations, Evans
confessed to a postal inspector that he and Bruton—whom
he implicated by name—had committed the robbery. Ibid.
The confession was introduced at trial, coupled with a limit-
ing instruction that it not be used against Bruton. Id., at
124–125, and n. 1. This Court held that, “because of the
Page Proof Pending Publication
substantial risk that the jury, despite instructions to the con-
trary, looked to the incriminating extrajudicial statements in
determining [Bruton]'s guilt, admission of Evans' confession
in this joint trial violated [Bruton]'s right of cross-examina-
tion secured by the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth
Amendment.” Id., at 126.
   The Court acknowledged that a defendant is “ `entitled to
a fair trial but not a perfect one' ” and conceded that “[i]t is
not unreasonable to conclude that in many . . . cases the jury
can and will follow the trial judge's instructions to disregard
[certain] information.” Id., at 135 (quoting Lutwak v.
United States, 344 U. S. 604, 619 (1953)). It even acknowl-
edged that, “[i]f it were true that the jury disregarded the
reference to [Bruton], no question would arise under the
Confrontation Clause.” 391 U. S., at 126. Yet, the Court
reasoned that “there are some contexts in which the risk
that the jury will not, or cannot, follow instructions is so
great, and the consequences of failure so vital to the defend-
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)            649

                      Opinion of the Court

ant, that the practical and human limitations of the jury sys-
tem cannot be ignored.” Id., at 135. Accordingly, in the
Court's view, “the introduction of Evans' confession posed a
substantial threat to [Bruton]'s right to confront the wit-
nesses against him.” Id., at 137.

                                2
   Later, in Richardson, the Court declined to expand the
Bruton rule to a redacted confession that inculpated the de-
fendant only when viewed in conjunction with other evi-
dence. There, Clarissa Marsh, Benjamin Williams, and Kar-
eem Martin were each charged with assault and murder.
481 U. S., at 202. Marsh and Williams were tried jointly for
the crime. Ibid. And, at trial, the State introduced Wil-
liams' confession, taken by police shortly after his arrest.
Id., at 203. As introduced, however, “[t]he confession was
redacted to omit all reference to [Marsh]—indeed, to omit
Page Proof Pending Publication
all indication that anyone other than Martin and Williams
participated in the crime.” Ibid. The confession largely
corroborated the victim's testimony and additionally de-
scribed a conversation between Williams and Martin as they
drove to the scene of the crime: “[A]ccording to Williams,
Martin said that he would have to kill the victims after the
robbery.” Id., at 204. Following the confession's admis-
sion, the trial judge instructed the jury not to use it against
Marsh in any way, an instruction reiterated in the jury
charge at the conclusion of trial. Id., at 204–205. In her
testimony, however, Marsh volunteered that, during the
drive to the crime scene, she “ `knew that [Martin and Wil-
liams] were talking' but could not hear the conversation be-
cause `the radio was on and the speaker was right in [her]
ear.' ” Id., at 204 (alternations in original). Both Marsh
and Williams were convicted. Id., at 205.
   In considering the introduction of Williams' confession,
this Court noted that, “[o]rdinarily, a witness whose testi-
mony is introduced at a joint trial is not considered to be a
650                   SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                          Opinion of the Court

witness `against' a defendant if the jury is instructed to con-
sider that testimony only against a codefendant,” emphasiz-
ing the “almost invariable assumption of the law that jurors
follow their instructions.” Id., at 206. It then explained
that Bruton represented a “narrow exception to this princi-
ple.” 481 U. S., at 207. Whereas the confession in Bruton
had “ `expressly implicat[ed]' the defendant as his accom-
plice,” the confession in Richardson “was not incriminating
on its face, and became so only when linked with evidence
introduced later at trial.” 481 U. S., at 208 (citing Bruton,
391 U. S., at 124, n. 1). The former evidence, the Court ex-
plained, is “more vivid” and thus “more diffcult to thrust
out of mind.” 481 U. S., at 208. Additionally, in the case of
inferential incrimination, the Court posited that “the judge's
instruction may well be successful in dissuading the jury
from entering onto the path of inference,” leaving “no in-
crimination to forget.” Ibid.2

Page Proof Pending
              3    Publication
   Gray then confronted a question Richardson expressly
left open: whether a confession altered “by substituting
for the defendant's name in the confession a blank space or
the word `deleted' ” violated the Confrontation Clause. 523
U. S., at 188; see also Richardson, 481 U. S., at 211, n. 5.
In Gray, the Court considered Anthony Bell's confession to
Baltimore police, implicating himself, Kevin Gray, and co-
conspirator Jacquin Vanlandingham in a murder. 523 U. S.,
at 188. The prosecution sought to introduce the confession
at trial, and the trial judge required that it be redacted to

  2
    The Court ended on a cautionary note, explaining that the prosecutor
had linked Marsh with Williams' confession in his closing argument.
Thus, the Court observed, “the prosecutor [had] sought to undo the effect
of the limiting instruction by urging the jury to use Williams' confession
in evaluating [Marsh's] case.” 481 U. S., at 211. If a claim of error on
this count were preserved, the Court suggested that relief could be appro-
priate. Ibid.
                      Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)                 651

                         Opinion of the Court

use the word “deleted” or “deletion” whenever Gray's or
Vanlandingham's names appeared. Ibid. At trial, the
prosecution had a police detective read the confession aloud
to the jury verbatim, substituting the words “deleted” or
“deletion” for Gray's or Vanlandingham's names.3 Ibid.
“Immediately after” the detective fnished reading the con-
fession, “the prosecutor asked, `after he gave you that in-
formation, you subsequently were able to arrest Mr. Kevin
Gray; is that correct?' The offcer responded, `That's cor-
rect.' ” Id., at 188–189. In instructing the jury at the close
of trial, the judge specifed that Bell's confession was evi-
dence only against Bell, admonishing the jury not to use the
confession as evidence against Gray. Id., at 189. The jury
convicted Bell and Gray.
  This Court held that the confession was inadmissible under
Bruton. It frst noted that, “unlike Richardson's redacted
confession, [Bell's] confession refer[red] directly to the `exist-
ence' of the nonconfessing defendant.” 523 U. S., at 192.
Page Proof Pending Publication
The Court then concluded that, when a redacted confession
“simply replace[s] a name with an obvious blank space or a
word such as `deleted' or a symbol or other similarly obvious
indications of alteration,” the evidence “so closely resem-
ble[s] Bruton's unredacted statements that . . . the law must
require the same result.” Ibid. The Court reasoned that
such “obvious blank[s]” would cause the jurors to speculate
as to whom the omitted individual may be, “lift[ing their]
eyes to [the nonconfessing defendant], sitting at counsel
table, to fnd what will seem the obvious answer,” as the
judge's “instruction will provide an obvious reason for the
blank.” Id., at 193. It also reasoned that “statements re-
dacted to leave a blank or some other similarly obvious alter-
ation” were “directly accusatory,” “point[ing] directly to the
defendant . . . in a manner similar to Evans' use of Bruton's
  3
   The prosecution also introduced a written copy of the confession with
Gray's and Vanlandigham's names omitted, “leaving in their place blank
white spaces separated by commas.” Gray, 523 U. S., at 189.
652                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                       Opinion of the Court

name or to a testifying codefendant's accusatory fnger.”
Id., at 194.
   While the Court “concede[d] that Richardson placed out-
side the scope of Bruton's rule those statements that incrim-
inate inferentially,” it explained that “inference pure and
simple cannot make the critical difference, for if it did, then
Richardson would also place outside Bruton's scope confes-
sions that use shortened frst names, nicknames, [and] de-
scriptions as unique as the `red-haired, bearded, one-eyed
man-with-a-limp.' ” Id., at 195. The Court elaborated:
      “That being so, Richardson must depend in signifcant
      part upon the kind of, not the simple fact of, inference.
      Richardson's inferences involved statements that did
      not refer directly to the defendant himself and which
      became incriminating `only when linked with evidence
      introduced later at trial.' 481 U. S., at 208. The infer-
      ences at issue here involve statements that, despite re-
Page Proof Pending Publication
      daction, obviously refer directly to someone, often obvi-
      ously the defendant, and which involve inferences that a
      jury ordinarily could make immediately, even were the
      confession the very frst item introduced at trial.” Id.,
      at 196.
Finally, the Court stressed that its holding, which addressed
only obviously redacted confessions, was suffciently narrow
to avoid “unnecessarily lead[ing] prosecutors to abandon the
[relevant] confession or joint trial.” Id., at 197.

                                B
  Viewed together, the Court's precedents distinguish be-
tween confessions that directly implicate a defendant and
those that do so indirectly. Richardson explicitly declined
to extend Bruton's “narrow exception” to the presumption
that jurors follow their instructions beyond those confessions
that occupy the former category. 481 U. S., at 207. Gray
qualifed but confrmed this legal standard, reiterating that
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)            653

                      Opinion of the Court

the Bruton rule applies only to “directly accusatory” incrimi-
nating statements, as distinct from those that do “not refer
directly to the defendant” and “bec[o]me incriminating only
when linked with evidence introduced later at trial.” 523
U. S., at 194, 196 (internal quotation marks omitted). Ac-
cordingly, neither Bruton, Richardson, nor Gray provides
license to fyspeck trial transcripts in search of evidence that
could give rise to a collateral inference that the defendant
had been named in an altered confession.
   Here, the District Court's admission of Stillwell's confes-
sion, accompanied by a limiting instruction, did not run afoul
of this Court's precedents. Stillwell's confession was re-
dacted to avoid naming Samia, satisfying Bruton's rule.
And, it was not obviously redacted in a manner resembling
the confession in Gray; the neutral references to some “other
person” were not akin to an obvious blank or the word “de-
leted.” In fact, the redacted confession is strikingly similar
Page Proof Pending Publication
to a hypothetical modifed confession we looked upon favor-
ably in Gray, where we posited that, instead of saying “ `[m]e,
deleted, deleted, and a few other guys,' ” the witness could
easily have said “ `[m]e and a few other guys.' ” 523 U. S.,
at 196. Accordingly, it “fall[s] outside the narrow exception
[Bruton] created.” Richardson, 481 U. S., at 208.
   Moreover, it would not have been feasible to further mod-
ify Stillwell's confession to make it appear, as in Richardson,
that he had acted alone. Stillwell was charged with conspir-
acy and did not confess to shooting Lee. Consequently, the
evidence of coordination between Stillwell and Lee's killer
(whether Samia or not) was necessary to prove an essential
element of the Government's case. In addition, editing the
statement to exclude mention of the “other person” may
have made it seem as though Stillwell and Lee were alone in
the van at the time Lee was shot. Such a scenario may have
led the jurors—who sat in judgment of both Samia and Still-
well—to conclude that Stillwell was the shooter, an obviously
prejudicial result.
654                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                       Opinion of the Court

                               IV
   As described above, expanding the Bruton rule in the way
Samia proposes would be inconsistent with longstanding
practice and our precedents. It would also work an un-
necessary and imprudent change in law, resulting in pre-
cisely the practical effects that the Court rejected in Rich-
ardson. The Confrontation Clause rule that Samia proposes
would require federal and state trial courts to conduct exten-
sive pretrial hearings to determine whether the jury could
infer from the Government's case in its entirety that the de-
fendant had been named in an altered confession. See Brief
for Petitioner 16. That approach would be burdensome and
“far from foolproof,” 481 U. S., at 209, and we decline to en-
dorse it.
   Indeed, it would be impractical to fully police juror infer-
ences in the way Samia seems to suggest; in a criminal trial,
all evidence that supports the prosecution's theory of the
Page Proof Pending Publication
case is, to some extent, mutually reinforcing. Thus, the
likely practical consequence of Samia's position would be to
mandate severance whenever the prosecution wishes to in-
troduce the confession of a nontestifying codefendant in a
joint trial. But, as this Court has observed, that is “too
high” a price to pay. Id., at 210. Joint trials have long
“play[ed] a vital role in the criminal justice system,” preserv-
ing government resources and allowing victims to avoid re-
peatedly reliving trauma. Id., at 209; see also United States
v. Marchant, 12 Wheat. 480, 482–483, 485 (1827) (Story, J.)
(recognizing the crucial role of joint trials). Further, joint
trials encourage consistent verdicts and enable more accu-
rate assessments of relative culpability. See Bruton, 391
U. S., at 143 (White, J., dissenting) (“[S]eparate trials are apt
to have varying consequences for legally indistinguishable
defendants”). Also, separate trials “randomly favo[r] the
last-tried defendants who have the advantage of knowing
the prosecution's case beforehand.” Richardson, 481 U. S.,
at 210.
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)                 655

                     Opinion of Barrett, J.

  Samia offers, as an alternative, that the Government may
choose to forgo use of the confession entirely, thereby avoid-
ing the need for severance. But, this ignores the fact that
confessions are “ `essential to society's compelling interest
in fnding, convicting, and punishing those who violate the
law.' ” Ibid. And, as described above, Samia's proposal is
not compelled by the Confrontation Clause.

                         *      *      *
   The Confrontation Clause ensures that defendants have
the opportunity to confront witnesses against them, but it
does not provide a freestanding guarantee against the risk
of potential prejudice that may arise inferentially in a joint
trial. Here, the Clause was not violated by the admission of
a nontestifying codefendant's confession that did not directly
inculpate the defendant and was subject to a proper limit-
ing instruction.
Page Proof Pending Publication
   We therefore affrm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

                                                   It is so ordered.
  Justice Barrett, concurring in part and concurring in
the judgment.
   I agree that the admission of Stillwell's modifed confes-
sion, together with a limiting instruction, did not violate the
Confrontation Clause. But in my view, the historical evi-
dence described in Part II–A, ante, is beside the point.
   First is a timing problem. The evidence is largely from
the late 19th and early 20th centuries—far too late to inform
the meaning of the Confrontation Clause “at the time of the
founding.” Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 36, 54 (2004).
The Court seems to agree, because it does not suggest that
the history is probative of original meaning. But nor does
it explain why this seemingly random time period matters.
For whatever reason (the parties only speculate), there ap-
pears to be little founding-era evidence illustrating how
656                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                     Opinion of Barrett, J.

courts handled the admission of a codefendant's confession.
So why not simply say that the history is inconclusive? And
if we are going to pick up the thread in 1878, why drop it in
1896? Ante, at 645. Are cases from 1896 that much more
important than cases from, say, the 1940s? While the Court
makes a claim about “longstanding practice” for “most of our
Nation's history,” ante, at 644, it describes only a snapshot.
   That brings me to my second problem: the substance of
the snapshot. The cited cases address the rules of evidence
rather than the Confrontation Clause. Ante, at 644–646. On
top of that, the two federal cases do not discuss the effective-
ness of limiting instructions, much less any need for redac-
tion. Sparf v. United States holds that the co-conspirator
exception to the hearsay rule does not apply to statements
made after the conspiracy has ended. 156 U. S. 51, 56 (1895).
Emphasizing the trial court's error in admitting the state-
ments against both defendants, the Court explained that the
Page Proof Pending Publication
trial court should have admitted them against the speaker
and excluded them against his codefendant. Id., at 58.
Neither limiting instructions nor redaction came up.
United States v. Ball is similarly tangential to Samia's case.
163 U. S. 662 (1896). There, the Court held that the trial
court had not abused its discretion in trying three codefend-
ants together. Id., at 672. As support for that point, the
Court noted that when the Government introduced the ad-
missions of one defendant, “the [trial] court at once said, in
the presence of the jury, that, of course, it would be only
evidence against him, if he said anything; and the court was
not afterwards requested to make any further ruling upon
this point.” Ibid. The Court assumed in passing that the
limiting instruction was effective—but the codefendants did
not argue otherwise, and they did not ask the court to alter
the statements.
   The two state cases at least address (and endorse) the use
of a limiting instruction after the admission of a codefend-
ant's confession. State v. Workman, 15 S. C. 540, 545 (1881);
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)             657

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

Jones v. Commonwealth, 72 Va. 836, 839–840 (1878). One
even holds that a trial court should not alter a statement by
redacting a codefendant's name. Workman, 15 S. C., at 545.
Like the federal cases, though, the state cases make no men-
tion of the confrontation right. Same for the treatises cited
by the Court. See S. Phillipps, Law of Evidence *82–*83
(1816); 3 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2100, p. 2841, and n. 5 (1904).
So for all we know, the cases cited by the Court and the
treatises proceed from the premise that an ordinary hearsay
rule, as opposed to a constitutional right, was on the line.
That weakens the importance of these sources, because
courts might have gone to greater lengths (for example, re-
daction) to ensure that a jury did not consider a declaration
whose admission would violate the State or Federal Consti-
tution. Bruton v. United States, after all, grounds itself in
the Sixth Amendment. 391 U. S. 123, 126 (1968).
   At best, the evidence recounted in Part II–A shows that,
during a narrow historical period, some courts assumed and
Page Proof Pending Publication
others expressly held that a limiting instruction suffciently
protected a codefendant from a declaration inadmissible on
hearsay grounds. In suggesting anything more, the Court
overclaims. That is unfortunate. While history is often
important and sometimes dispositive, we should be discrimi-
nating in its use. Otherwise, we risk undermining the force
of historical arguments when they matter most.

  Justice Kagan, with whom Justice Sotomayor and
Justice Jackson join, dissenting.
  Imagine a criminal case involving two defendants—John
and Mary. John and Mary are arrested for robbing Bill.
Before trial, John confesses to the robbery in an interview
with police. But John does more than admit his own
involvement; he also points a fnger at Mary. John says to
the police: “Mary and I went out Saturday night and robbed
Bill.” Mary, on the other hand, never confesses to the rob-
bery. She maintains that she wasn't involved—in fact, that
658               SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

she never left her home on the night in question. The gov-
ernment tries John and Mary together. At trial, it intro-
duces a copy of John's confession into evidence, and has it
read to the jury by the interviewing offcer. But John elects
not to take the stand, leaving Mary's attorney without an
opportunity to cross-examine him about his confession.
   This Court's precedent bars the government from using
John's confession in that way. The Confrontation Clause of
the Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant the
right “to be confronted with the witnesses against” her,
which includes the right to cross-examine those witnesses.
See Pointer v. Texas, 380 U. S. 400, 404–405 (1965). So when
two defendants are tried jointly, the pretrial confession of
one identifying the other as involved in the crime cannot be
admitted unless the confessing defendant takes the stand.
That is true, we held in Bruton v. United States, 391 U. S.
123 (1968), regardless of whether a judge instructs the jury
Page Proof Pending Publication
to consider the evidence only against the confessor (John),
and not against his co-defendant (Mary). Even with that
kind of instruction, a “substantial risk” exists that the jury
will impermissibly rely on John's confession when determin-
ing Mary's guilt. Id., at 126.
   Suppose, though, that the government redacts the confes-
sion to eliminate Mary's name. Mary still sits in the court-
room alongside John. But the version of the confession
admitted into evidence now includes a blank space where
Mary's name belongs. And when the interviewing offcer
reads the confession to the jury, he says “deleted” in place of
Mary's name. So instead of “Mary and I went out Saturday
night and robbed Bill,” what the jury hears is “deleted and
I went out Saturday night and robbed Bill.”
   That confession, too, is inadmissible under our precedent.
Though the confession no longer identifes Mary by name,
the implication is obvious: A juror “need only lift his eyes to
[Mary], sitting at counsel table,” to realize to whom “deleted”
refers. Gray v. Maryland, 523 U. S. 185, 193 (1998). The
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)           659

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

redacted confession thus presents the same risk as the unre-
dacted one—that the jury will consider it as evidence against
Mary even if instructed not to. Because the confessions “so
closely resemble” each other, we have held, “the law must
require the same result.” Id., at 192.
   Now consider one last option. The government again
modifes the confession to avoid the express reference. But
this time, instead of swapping Mary's name out for “deleted,”
the government replaces it with the words “a woman.” The
line read to the jury thus becomes: “A woman and I went
out Saturday night and robbed Bill.” In the face of prece-
dent that would bar the government from using either of the
frst two versions of John's confession, a judge must decide
what to do about this one. Would its admission, too, violate
Mary's right of confrontation?
   The answer should be obvious. A jury is still going to
recognize that John is talking about Mary—for who else
could the mystery “woman” be? This last version of the
Page Proof Pending Publication
confession thus presents the same risk as the frst two: that
jurors will rely on John's confession when assessing Mary's
guilt. Yet in today's decision, the Court draws a line of con-
stitutional signifcance between the frst two examples and
the third. Confessions that use a defendant's name or a
symbol of omission—clear Confrontation Clause violation.
Confessions that replace a defendant's name with another
placeholder—no Sixth Amendment problem, no matter how
obvious the reference to the defendant. In so elevating
form over substance, the majority permits an end-run
around our precedent and undermines a vital constitutional
protection for the accused.
                              I
   Start with Bruton, the foundation of this Court's prece-
dent on the introduction of confessions at joint trials. The
government, we held in that case, cannot introduce a confes-
sion by a non-testifying defendant that names a co-defendant
as an accomplice. Admitting the confession against the co-
660                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

defendant would violate her Sixth Amendment right to
cross-examine witnesses. See 391 U. S., at 126. And an in-
struction to the jury to disregard the confession when as-
sessing the co-defendant's guilt cannot remove the constitu-
tional problem. That is because of the effect that such a
“powerfully incriminating extrajudicial statement[ ]” is likely
to have on a jury. Id., at 135–136. In this context, “the
risk that the jury will not, or cannot, follow [the instruction]
is so great, and the consequences of failure so vital to the
defendant, that the practical and human limitations of the
jury system cannot be ignored.” Id., at 135.
   The Bruton rule applies even when an accusatory confes-
sion does not expressly name the co-defendant. Bruton, we
have held, bars the use of confessions “that replace[ ] a name
with an obvious blank space or symbol or word such as `de-
leted.' ” Gray, 523 U. S., at 189. (So the Bruton rule ex-
tends beyond the frst John-and-Mary hypothetical to the
Page Proof Pending Publication
second.) And similarly, Bruton bars the admission of “con-
fessions that use shortened frst names, nicknames, [and] de-
scriptions as unique as the `red-haired, bearded, one-eyed
man-with-a-limp.' ” Gray, 523 U. S., at 195; accord, ante,
at 652. The Court assumed, for example, that at a joint trial
of four defendants—three Black, one white—Bruton re-
quired the exclusion of two of the Black defendants' confes-
sions because they referred to the “white guy” as a partici-
pant in the crime. Harrington v. California, 395 U. S. 250,
252–253 (1969); see Gray, 523 U. S., at 195. Though confes-
sions of that kind do not expressly name a non-confessing
defendant, they still point directly at him. See id., at 194.
They thus raise the same constitutional concern—that jurors
will consider the confession's accusation in evaluating the
non-confessing defendant's guilt.
   Until today, Bruton's application turned on the effect a
confession is likely to have on the jury, as a comparison of
two of our decisions shows. In Richardson v. Marsh, 481
U. S. 200, 211 (1987), we approved the admission of a confes-
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)            661

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

sion “redacted to eliminate not only [a co-defendant's] name,
but any reference to his or her existence.” Despite that
complete redaction, the confession served to incriminate the
co-defendant later in the trial, when her own testimony
placed her in a car ride that the confession described. See
id., at 206, 208. But we thought that a confession that in-
criminated only “by connection” with subsequent evidence
was neither so “vivid” nor so “powerful[ ]” as a confession
that “incriminat[ed] on its face.” Id., at 208–209. For that
reason, we thought, the jury was more “likely [to] obey the
instruction” to disregard the confession as to the co-defend-
ant. Id., at 208. But we held in Gray that the calculus is
different when a confession “refers directly to the `existence'
of the nonconfessing defendant,” even though not by name.
523 U. S., at 192. Such a confession itself points a fnger
at a co-defendant, so that the jury can “immediately” and
“vivid[ly]” grasp how it implicates her. Id., at 196. The
Page Proof Pending Publication
impact is so similar to naming the defendant that “the law
must require the same result.” Id., at 192. In both situa-
tions, the confession's “powerfully incriminating” effect “cre-
ates a special, and vital, need for cross-examination”—just
as if “the codefendant pointed directly to the defendant in
the courtroom.” Id., at 194.
   Consider against that backdrop the facts of this case.
Petitioner Adam Samia was tried jointly with two co-defend-
ants—Joseph Hunter and Carl David Stillwell—on charges
related to a murder committed in the Philippines. Accord-
ing to the prosecution's theory of the case, Paul LeRoux, the
head of a transnational criminal organization, ordered the
killing; and Hunter, one of LeRoux's managers, hired Samia
and Stillwell as hitmen. Before trial, Stillwell confessed to
federal agents that both he and Samia were present at the
murder, but told them that Samia was the triggerman. On
that version of events, Samia shot the victim in a van that
Stillwell was driving. App. 42–43, 45. At trial, one of the
agents testifed about Stillwell's confession, replacing Samia's
662               SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

name with placeholders like “somebody else” and “the other
person.” Id., at 75. So, for example, when the prosecutor
asked the agent what Stillwell had said about his arrival in
the Philippines, the agent answered: “He stated that he had
met somebody else over there.” Ibid. And when asked
whether Stillwell had recounted the crime, the agent testi-
fed: “Yes. He described a time when the other person he
was with pulled the trigger on that woman in a van that he
and Mr. Stillwell was driving.” Id., at 76.
   From the jury's perspective, the identity of the triggerman
would have been obvious. The jury knew from the start of
trial that there were just three defendants. It knew based
on the prosecutor's opening statement that those defendants
were on trial for offenses related to a death in the Philip-
pines. And it knew the role that each defendant allegedly
played in the crime: Hunter had hired Stillwell and Samia as
hitmen, and those two men carried out the murder. In fact,
the prosecutor began his opening statement with the exact
Page Proof Pending Publication
sequence of events Stillwell had described in his interview:
The prosecutor told jurors that Samia “shot [the victim]
twice in the face” while the victim “was riding in the back-
seat of a van driven” by Stillwell. Id., at 52. So when the
federal agent took the stand on day two of the trial, it didn't
make a lick of difference that he didn't identify the shooter
by name, but instead used placeholder terms. Any reason-
able juror would have realized immediately—and without
reference to any other evidence—that “the other person”
who “pulled the trigger” was Samia.
   That fact makes Stillwell's confession inadmissible under
our Bruton precedent. The agent's testimony about the
confession pointed a fnger straight at Samia, no less than if
the agent had used Samia's name or called him “deleted.”

                               II
  So how does the majority reach a contrary result? The
nomenclature it adopts isn't the problem: In describing Bru-
                    Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)             663

                       Kagan, J., dissenting

ton's scope, the majority distinguishes “between confessions
that directly implicate a defendant and those that do so indi-
rectly.” Ante, at 648, 652. That distinction roughly tracks
the one this Court has recognized between confessions that
themselves incriminate a co-defendant (directly implicate)
and those that become incriminating only when linked with
later-introduced evidence (indirectly implicate). See supra,
at 660–661. But the majority distorts that distinction be-
yond recognition when applying it to the facts of this case.
In one blink-and-you-miss-it paragraph of analysis, the ma-
jority holds that Stillwell's confession does not “directly” im-
plicate Samia for two reasons. It “was redacted to avoid
naming Samia.” Ante, at 653. And the redaction was “not
akin to an obvious blank or the word `deleted.' ” Ibid.
   That analysis altogether fails to capture what our Bruton
cases care about. This Court has already made clear that
the frst fact relied on—that Stillwell's confession did not use
Page Proof Pending Publication
Samia's name—is not dispositive. See supra, at 660. A
confession redacted with a blank space, after all, also avoids
naming the defendant; yet Gray held that it falls within Bru-
ton's scope. So today's decision must rest on the second fea-
ture of the confession: that the placeholder used (e. g., “the
other person”) was neither a blank space nor the word “de-
leted.” But that distinction makes nonsense of the Bruton
rule. Bruton's application has always turned on a confes-
sion's inculpatory impact. See, e. g., Cruz v. New York, 481
U. S. 186, 193 (1987) (considering “the likelihood that [a limit-
ing] instruction will be disregarded” and “the probability
that such disregard will have a devastating effect”). And as
the John-and-Mary examples make clear, a confession that
swaps in a phrase like “the other person” for a defendant's
name may incriminate just as powerfully as one that swaps
in a blank space. See supra, at 657–659. So the majority
warps our Bruton precedent by categorically putting the two
on opposite sides of the constitutional line. As the Court re-
marked in another case about Bruton, “[t]he law cannot com-
664               SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

mand respect” if we apply such “inexplicable”—and indeed
unprincipled—line-drawing to a “constitutional imperative.”
Cruz, 481 U. S., at 193.
   Contrary to the majority's claim, Gray repudiates rather
than supports the distinction adopted today. In holding that
Bruton's protections extend beyond confessions with names
to confessions with blanks, Gray explained that what should
matter is not a confession's form but its effects. A jury,
Gray noted, “will often react similarly” to the two kinds of
confessions; the blank space (rather than name) is “not likely
[to] fool anyone.” 523 U. S., at 193. Ignoring Gray's forest
for one tree, the majority points to a passage in which the
Court described how a confession in the case could have been
further redacted: Instead of saying “[m]e, deleted, deleted,
and a few other guys,” the witness could have said “[m]e and
a few other guys.” Id., at 196. But on Gray's particular
facts, the latter version was unproblematic. The crime was
Page Proof Pending Publication
a gang assault involving six perpetrators, while only one
other person was on trial with the confessing defendant.
The “[m]e and a few other guys” phrase thus did not point a
fnger directly at the co-defendant, as “the other person”
phrase here did at Samia. The more relevant reference dis-
cussed in Gray was to the “white guy” in a trial with only
one white defendant, as described above. Id., at 195; see
supra, at 660. Gray left no doubt that the confession with
that phrase should have been excluded—and for the same
reason as the confession with “deleted.” When a modifed
confession has an “accusatory” effect “similar” to one with
names, the Court reasoned, the law “require[s] the same re-
sult.” Id., at 192, 194. Gray could not have cared less
whether the modifcation takes the form of a blank space or
of a different, but no less accusatory, placeholder.
   The practical concerns the majority cites in support of its
decision are equally fimsy. On the majority's view, a ruling
for Samia would require courts to conduct “extensive pre-
trial hearings” reviewing “the Government's case in its en-
                        Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)                     665

                           Kagan, J., dissenting

tirety.” Ante, at 654. But that charge is a strawman—and
one that Gray already knocked down. See 523 U. S., at 197.
The Bruton rule—whether applying to confessions with
names, with blanks, or with other placeholders—demands
only that a court consider “in advance of trial” such matters
as the content of the confession, the number of defendants,
and the prosecution's general theory of the case. Cruz, 481
U. S., at 193; see Gray, 523 U. S., at 197; cf. Richardson,
481 U. S., at 209 (noting that a more demanding inquiry
would be needed if Bruton applied to confessions incrimi-
nating only “by connection” with later-introduced evidence).
Courts have long considered those basic factors when apply-
ing Bruton.1 And the Government has proved unable to
cite a single case—including in Circuits applying Bruton to
confessions like Stillwell's—in which doing so created “ad-
ministrability” issues, much less “fewer joint trials.” Tr. of
Oral Arg. 93–96.2 In any event, greater “convenience in the
administration of the law,” as Bruton noted, cannot come
Page Proof Pending Publication
at the expense “of fundamental principles of constitutional
liberty.” 391 U. S., at 135. “That price,” we recognized
then, “is too high.” Ibid.
   With nothing else to support it, the majority reaches for
two props inconsistent with Bruton itself. One is the “pre-
sumption that jurors follow limiting instructions.” Ante, at
646–647. The majority correctly describes that presump-
tion; it just forgets that the presumption does not apply
when the evidence at issue is an accusatory co-defendant con-
fession. Bruton could not have been clearer on the point:
   1
     See, e. g., United States v. Straker, 800 F. 3d 570, 595–601 (CADC 2015);
United States v. Hardwick, 544 F. 3d 565, 573 (CA3 2008); United States
v. Vega Molina, 407 F. 3d 511, 520–521 (CA1 2005); United States v. Wil-
liams, 429 F. 3d 767, 773–774 (CA8 2005); United States v. Hernandez, 330
F. 3d 964, 973–974 (CA7 2003).
   2
     Seriously, the Government's only proffered complaint when asked to
expound on administrability issues was with one appellate decision that
took “six double-column F. 3d pages” to review the trial court's Bruton
ruling. Tr. of Oral Arg. 96.
666                SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                      Kagan, J., dissenting

“[W]e cannot accept limiting instructions as an adequate
substitute for [a defendant's] constitutional right of cross-ex-
amination.” 391 U. S., at 137; see Gray, 523 U. S., at 192
(stating that co-defendant confessions are “so prejudicial
that limiting instructions cannot work”); Richardson, 481
U. S., at 208 (noting “the overwhelming probability of [ju-
rors'] inability” to follow instructions to disregard co-defend-
ant confessions); see supra, at 659–660. And the majority
does no better in invoking “historical evidentiary practice.”
See ante, at 644–646. One point here is Justice Barrett's:
There just isn't much history helping the majority. See
ante, at 655–657 (opinion concurring in part and concurring
in judgment). But assume for a moment to the contrary:
Suppose with the majority that at some relevant time, courts
conducting joint trials admitted unredacted co-defendant
confessions subject only to limiting instructions. Ante, at
644–646. If that history controlled, Bruton itself would
have been wrongly decided. The majority's real views thus
Page Proof Pending Publication
come into focus. The point of its opinion is not to distin-
guish the confession here from the one in Bruton. The
point is to say why Bruton should go.

                         *     *      *
  And so one might wonder after reading today's decision
whether Bruton is the next precedent on this Court's chop-
ping block. The one reason it may not be is that there is
now no need for formal overruling: Under this decision,
prosecutors can always circumvent Bruton's protections.
Consider once more John's confession implicating Mary in a
robbery—a confession, I'll now add, bearing a striking re-
semblance to the one in Bruton. See 391 U. S., at 124 (“A
postal inspector testifed that Evans orally confessed to him
that Evans and [Bruton] committed the armed robbery”).
The Bruton rule will still bar the prosecution from using the
original version of John's confession, expressly naming Mary.
So too the rule will prevent the prosecution from swapping
                    Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)             667

                      Jackson, J., dissenting

out Mary's name for a blank space or the word “deleted.”
But no worries—the government now has a functionally
equivalent placeholder at its (Court-sanctioned) disposal. It
can simply replace Mary's name with “a woman,” and the
Bruton issue will go away. But contrary to today's decision,
the serious Sixth Amendment problem remains. Now, de-
fendants in joint trials will not have the chance to confront
some of the most damaging witnesses against them. And a
constitutional right once guaranteeing that opportunity will
no longer. It will become, in joint trials, a shell of its former
self. I respectfully dissent.

  Justice Jackson, dissenting.
   I join Justice Kagan’s dissent in full, and agree, in par-
ticular, with her insight that the majority's bottom-line view
is that “Bruton should go.” Ante, at 666. I am writing to
emphasize that most of the force of the Court's argument (to
Page Proof Pending Publication
the extent that it is at all forceful) comes from the majority
having improperly reframed the constitutional standard that
applies to the admission of incriminating testimonial state-
ments of a codefendant during a joint criminal trial.
   Under the majority's approach, the default rule is that a
nontestifying codefendant's incriminating confession is ad-
missible, so long as it is accompanied by a limiting instruc-
tion. Ante, at 644, 647, 655. Thus, for present purposes,
the majority repeatedly calls Bruton v. United States, 391
U. S. 123 (1968), a “ `narrow exception' ” to this default rule.
Ante, at 647, 650, 652–653. And the thrust of the majority's
holding is that the so-called Bruton exception is—and must
be—narrow: Bruton is a pesky deviation that requires the
exclusion of otherwise admissible evidence (hence, the ease
with which the majority contemplates dispensing with that
precedent).
   That approach inverts the constitutional principles that
govern this case. Under our well-established Sixth Amend-
ment precedents, the Court's analysis must, instead, start
668                   SAMIA v. UNITED STATES

                          Jackson, J., dissenting

from the premise that the introduction of Stillwell's inculpa-
tory confession during the joint trial threatened Samia's
Confrontation Clause rights. The introduction of a “testi-
monial” statement from an unavailable declarant violates the
Confrontation Clause unless the defendant had a prior oppor-
tunity for cross-examination. Crawford v. Washington, 541
U. S. 36, 59, 68 (2004). And, here, there is no dispute that
Stillwell's statement to law enforcement was testimonial,
that Stillwell was an unavailable declarant, and that Samia
had no opportunity to cross-examine Stillwell. Therefore,
the default presumption in this case should have been that
Stillwell's confession was not admissible at his and Samia's
joint trial, because the statement implicated Samia on its
face, and Samia could not cross-examine the declarant.*
   When the Government attempted to nonetheless introduce
Stillwell's inculpatory confession notwithstanding Samia's in-
ability to cross-examine him, it sought an exception from the
Confrontation Clause's exclusion mandate. Before today,
Page Proof Pending Publication
this Court had never held that a limiting instruction, com-
bined with a redaction that merely replaces the defendant's
name, suffciently “cures” the constitutional problem. In
Bruton, the Court rejected the idea of an exception en-
tirely—it entertained permitting such an exception in light
of a limiting instruction given at trial, but the Court ulti-
mately declined to adopt one. 391 U. S., at 137 (“[I]n the
context of a joint trial we cannot accept limiting instructions
as an adequate substitute for petitioner's constitutional right
of cross-examination”). Then, in Gray v. Maryland, 523
  *Contrary to the Government's suggestion (see Brief for United States
12, 32), a codefendant's confession implicates a defendant's Sixth Amend-
ment rights even if it does “not directly accuse [the defendant] of wrongdo-
ing,” but “rather . . . is inculpatory only when taken together with other
evidence,” Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U. S. 305, 313 (2009).
That conclusion follows from the text of the Sixth Amendment, which
guarantees the right of the accused to “confron[t]” “witnesses against him”
(emphasis added), not just those witnesses who “ `facially incriminat[e]' ”
him, contra, ante, at 647–648.
                   Cite as: 599 U. S. 635 (2023)            669

                     Jackson, J., dissenting

U. S. 185 (1998), the Government tried again to get an excep-
tion to the Confrontation Clause—this time adding an obvi-
ous redaction of the defendant's name in the confession on
top of the limiting instruction—but this Court once again
rebuffed such efforts. Id., at 188. Indeed, the only prior
case in which this Court has permitted an exception to the
baseline confrontation rule of exclusion was one in which the
confession at issue arguably was not even “against” the de-
fendant in the frst place, as it did not incriminate the ac-
cused in any way until the defendant herself introduced evi-
dence that rendered the confession inculpatory. Richardson
v. Marsh, 481 U. S. 200, 206, 208, 211 (1987).
   Collectively, our precedents properly recognize the neces-
sary narrowness of any exception to the default Bruton prin-
ciple that the Government's introduction of an inculpatory
confession during a joint trial poses a substantial constitu-
tional problem. Not anymore. With today's ruling, the ma-
jority fails to acknowledge what is the default rule and what
Page Proof Pending Publication
is the exception. And it thereby sets the stage for consider-
able erosion of the Confrontation Clause right that Bruton
protects.
   Properly understood, the Bruton question actually raises
two distinct issues: one about whether there is a Confronta-
tion Clause problem in the frst place, and a second about
potential cures (like redactions and limiting instructions) for
that constitutional dilemma. The majority skips over the
frst question today; its analysis essentially assumes that
there is no Sixth Amendment problem in the frst place,
which then allows for an unwarranted expansion of what
should be a narrow exception to the default principle of ex-
clusion. In other words, the Court has now turned our Bru-
ton cases on their head in a manner that risks undermining
a core Sixth Amendment right.
                           Reporter’s Note

  The attached opinion has been revised to refect the usual publication
and citation style of the United States Reports. The revised pagination
makes available the offcial United States Reports citation in advance of
publication. The syllabus has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions
Page Proof Pending Publication
for the convenience of the reader and constitutes no part of the opinion of
the Court. A list of counsel who argued or fled briefs in this case, and
who were members of the bar of this Court at the time this case was
argued, has been inserted following the syllabus. Other revisions may
include adjustments to formatting, captions, citation form, and any errant
punctuation. The following additional edits were made:

None