Cite as: 523 U. S. 185 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
to arrest Mr. Kevin Gray; is that correct?" The officer responded, "That's correct." App. 12. The State also introduced into evidence a written copy of the confession with those two names omitted, leaving in their place blank white spaces separated by commas. See Appendix, infra. The State produced other witnesses, who said that six persons (including Bell, Gray, and Vanlandingham) participated in the beating. Gray testified and denied his participation. Bell did not testify.
When instructing the jury, the trial judge specified that the confession was evidence only against Bell; the instructions said that the jury should not use the confession as evidence against Gray. The jury convicted both Bell and Gray. Gray appealed.
Maryland's intermediate appellate court accepted Gray's argument that Bruton prohibited use of the confession and set aside his conviction. 107 Md. App. 311, 667 A. 2d 983 (1995). Maryland's highest court disagreed and reinstated the conviction. 344 Md. 417, 687 A. 2d 660 (1997). We granted certiorari in order to consider Bruton's application to a redaction that replaces a name with an obvious blank space or symbol or word such as "deleted."
II
In deciding whether Bruton's protective rule applies to the redacted confession before us, we must consider both Bruton and a later case, Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U. S. 200 (1987), which limited Bruton's scope. We shall briefly summarize each of these two cases.
Bruton, as we have said, involved two defendants—Evans and Bruton—tried jointly for robbery. Evans did not testify, but the Government introduced into evidence Evans' confession, which stated that both he (Evans) and Bruton together had committed the robbery. 391 U. S., at 124. The trial judge told the jury it could consider the confession
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