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Rh those that do so indirectly. Richardson explicitly declined to extend Bruton’s “narrow exception” to the presumption that jurors follow their instructions beyond those confessions that occupy the former category. 481 U. S., at 207. Gray qualified but confirmed this legal standard, reiterating that the Bruton rule applies only to “directly accusatory” incriminating statements, as distinct from those that do “not refer directly to the defendant” and “bec[o]me incriminating only when linked with evidence introduced later at trial.” 523 U. S., at 194, 196 (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, neither Bruton, Richardson, nor Gray provides license to flyspeck trial transcripts in search of evidence that could give rise to a collateral inference that the defendant had been named in an altered confession.

Here, the District Court’s admission of Stillwell’s confession, accompanied by a limiting instruction, did not run afoul of this Court’s precedents. Stillwell’s confession was redacted to avoid naming Samia, satisfying Bruton’s rule. And, it was not obviously redacted in a manner resembling the confession in Gray; the neutral references to some “other person” were not akin to an obvious blank or the word “deleted.” In fact, the redacted confession is strikingly similar to a hypothetical modified confession we looked upon favorably in Gray, where we posited that, instead of saying “ ‘[m]e, deleted, deleted, and a few other guys,’ ” the witness could easily have said “ ‘[m]e and a few other guys.’ ” 523 U. S., at 196. Accordingly, it “fall[s] outside the narrow exception [Bruton] created.” Richardson, 481 U. S., at 208.

Moreover, it would not have been feasible to further modify Stillwell’s confession to make it appear, as in Richardson, that he had acted alone. Stillwell was charged with conspiracy and did not confess to shooting Lee. Consequently, the evidence of coordination between Stillwell and Lee’s killer (whether Samia or not) was necessary to prove an essential element of the Government’s case. In addition,