Cite as: 527 U. S. 116 (1999)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
States, 512 U. S. 594 (1994), without reaching the Confrontation Clause issue, we held that an accomplice's statement against his own penal interest was not admissible against the defendant.3 We once again noted the presumptive unreliability of the "non-self-inculpatory" portions of the statement: "One of the most effective ways to lie is to mix falsehood with truth, especially truth that seems particularly persuasive because of its self-inculpatory nature." Id., at 599-601.
It is clear that our cases consistently have viewed an accomplice's statements that shift or spread the blame to a criminal defendant as falling 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, 502 U. S., at 357. This view is also reflected in several States' hearsay law.4 Indeed, prior
3 Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(3) provides an exception to the hearsay rule for the admission of "[a] statement which was at the time of its making so far contrary to the declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far tended to subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability . . . that a reasonable person in the declarant's position would not have made the statement unless believing it to be true."
4 Several States provide statutorily that their against-penal-interest hearsay exceptions do not allow the admission of "[a] statement or confession offered against the accused in a criminal case, made by a codefendant or other person implicating both himself and the accused." Ark. Rule Evid. 804(b)(3) (1997). Accord, Ind. Rule Evid. 803(b)(3) (1999); Me. Rule Evid. 804(b)(3) (1998); Nev. Rev. Stat. § 51.345(2) (Supp. 1996); N. J. Rule Evid. 803(25)(c) (1999); N. D. Cent. Code Rule Evid. § 804(b)(3) (1998); Vt. Rule Evid. 804(b)(3) (1998). See also State v. Myers, 229 Kan. 168, 172- 173, 625 P. 2d 1111, 1115 (1981) ("Under [Kan. Stat. Ann. §] 60-460(f) [(1976)], a hearsay confession of one coparticipant in a crime is not admissible against another coparticipant"). Several other States have adopted the language of the Federal Rule, see n. 3, supra, and adhere to our interpretation of that rule in Williamson. See Smith v. State, 647 A. 2d 1083, 1088 (Del. 1994); United States v. Hammond, 681 A. 2d 1140, 1146 (Ct. App. D. C. 1996); State v. Smith, 643 So. 2d 1221, 1221-1222 (La. 1994); State v. Matusky, 343 Md. 467, 490-492, and n. 15, 682 A. 2d 694, 705-706, and n. 15 (1996); State v. Ford, 539 N. W. 2d 214, 217 (Minn. 1995); State v. Castle, 285 Mont. 363, 373-374, 948 P. 2d 688, 694 (1997); Miles v. State,
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