In Samia v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 2023 U.S. Lexis 2637 (June 23, 2023), the U.S. Supreme Court declined to expand the rule in Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968) and, in fact, may have sounded the death knell for Bruton itself.

Over 50 years ago, the Supreme Court held, in Bruton, that, at a joint trial, the introduction of an out-of-court confession that implicates another defendant by name violates the confrontation clause, even if the jury is instructed not to consider the confession against the nonconfessing defendant.