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8 deleted, deleted, and a few other guys,” the witness could have said “[m]e and a few other guys.” Id., at 196. But on Gray’s particular facts, the latter version was unproblematic. The crime was a gang assault involving six perpetrators, while only one other person was on trial with the confessing defendant. The “[m]e and a few other guys” phrase thus did not point a finger directly at the co-defendant, as “the other person” phrase here did at Samia. The more relevant reference discussed in Gray was to the “white guy” in a trial with only one white defendant, as described above. Id., at 195; see. Gray left no doubt that the confession with that phrase should have been excluded—and for the same reason as the confession with “deleted.” When a modified confession has an “accusatory” effect “similar” to one with names, the Court reasoned, the law “require[s] the same result.” Id., at 192, 194. Gray could not have cared less whether the modification takes the form of a blank space or of a different, but no less accusatory, placeholder.

The practical concerns the majority cites in support of its decision are equally flimsy. On the majority’s view, a ruling for Samia would require courts to conduct “extensive pretrial hearings” reviewing “the Government’s case in its entirety.” But that charge is a strawman—and one that Gray already knocked down. See 523 U. S., at 197. The Bruton rule—whether applying to confessions with names, with blanks, or with other placeholders—demands only that a court consider “in advance of trial” such matters as the content of the confession, the number of defendants, and the prosecution’s general theory of the case. Cruz, 481 U. S., at 193; see Gray, 523 U. S., at 197; cf. Richardson, 481 U. S., at 209 (noting that a more demanding inquiry would be needed if Bruton applied to confessions incriminating only “by connection” with later-introduced evidence).