Cite as: 523 U. S. 185 (1998)
Scalia, J., dissenting
"[A] witness 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, supra, at 206. In Bruton, we recognized a "narrow exception" to this rule: "We held 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 if the jury is instructed to consider the confession only against the codefendant." 481 U. S., at 207.
We declined in Richardson, however, to extend Bruton to confessions that incriminate only by inference from other evidence. When incrimination is inferential, "it is a less valid generalization that the jury will not likely obey the instruction to disregard the evidence." 481 U. S., at 208. Today the Court struggles to decide whether a confession redacted to omit the defendant's name is incriminating on its face or by inference. On the one hand, the Court "concede[s] that the jury must use inference to connect the statement in this redacted confession with the defendant," ante, at 195, but later asserts, on the other hand, that "the redacted confession with the blank prominent on its face . . . 'facially incriminat[es]' " him, ante, at 196. The Court should have stopped with its concession: The statement "Me, deleted, deleted, and a few other guys" does not facially incriminate anyone but the speaker. The Court's analogizing of "deleted" to a physical description that clearly identifies the defendant (which we have assumed Bruton covers, see Harrington v. California, 395 U. S. 250, 253 (1969)) does not survive scrutiny. By "facially incriminating," we have meant incriminating independent of other evidence introduced at trial. Richardson, supra, at 208-209. Since the defendant's appearance at counsel table is not evidence, the description "red-haired, bearded, one-eyed man-with-a-limp," ante, at 195, would be facially incriminating—unless, of course, the defendant had dyed his hair black and shaved
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