Cite as: 527 U. S. 116 (1999)
Syllabus
ment violation was "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt." Chapman v. California, 386 U. S. 18, 24. Pp. 139-140.
Justice Stevens, joined by Justice Souter, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer, concluded in Parts III, IV, and V that Mark's hearsay statements do not meet the requirements for admission set forth in Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U. S. 56, 66. Pp. 123-139.
(a) The Confrontation Clause ensures the reliability of evidence against a defendant by subjecting it to rigorous testing in an adversary proceeding, Maryland v. Craig, 497 U. S. 836, 845, as by cross-examination of a declarant, see California v. Green, 399 U. S. 149, 158. Hearsay statements are sufficiently dependable to allow their untested admission against an accused only when (1) the statements fall "within a firmly rooted hearsay exception" or (2) they contain "particularized guarantees of trustworthiness" such that adversarial testing would be expected to add little, if anything, to their reliability. Roberts, 448 U. S., at 66. Pp. 123-125. (b) Statements are admissible under a "firmly rooted" hearsay exception when they fall within a hearsay category whose conditions have proved over time "to remove all temptation to falsehood, and to enforce as strict an adherence to the truth as would the obligation of an oath" and cross-examination at a trial. Mattox v. United States, 156 U. S. 237, 244. The simple categorization of a statement as "against penal interest" defines too large a class for meaningful Confrontation Clause review. Such statements are offered into evidence (1) as voluntary admissions against the declarant; (2) as exculpatory evidence offered by a defendant who claims that the declarant committed, or was involved in, the offense; and (3) as evidence offered by the prosecution to establish the guilt of an alleged accomplice of the declarant. The third category, which includes statements such as Mark's, encompasses statements that are presumptively unreliable, Lee, 476 U. S., at 541, even when the accomplice incriminates himself together with the defendant. Accomplice statements that shift or spread blame to a criminal defendant, therefore, fall outside the realm of those "hearsay exception[s] [that are] so trustworthy that adversarial testing can be expected to add little to [the statements'] reliability." White v. Illinois, 502 U. S. 346, 357. Such statements are not within a firmly rooted exception to the hearsay rule. Pp. 125-134.
(c) The Commonwealth contends that this Court should defer to the Virginia Supreme Court's additional determination that Mark's statements were reliable and that the indicia of reliability the court found, coupled with the actions of police during Mark's interrogation, demonstrate that the circumstances surrounding his statements bore "particularized guarantees of trustworthiness," Roberts, 448 U. S., at 66, suffi-
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