Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-899_97be.pdf
Page Number: 43.0

12 

SMITH v. ARIZONA 

ALITO, J., concurring in judgment 

able to follow the limiting instruction, and we therefore af-
firmed Samia’s murder conviction. 

Our cases have recognized only one situation in which a 
limiting instruction is insufficient: where a defendant is di-
rectly  incriminated  by  the  extrajudicial  statements  of  a 
non-testifying  codefendant.  Bruton  v.  United  States,  391 
U. S. 123 (1968).  We have declined to extend that excep-
tion, see Samia, 599 U. S., at 654, and the evidence in ques-
tion in Bruton cases is worlds away from an expert’s basis 
testimony.  If  the  Court  thinks  otherwise,  it  needs  to  ex-
plain  why  basis  testimony  falls  into  the  Bruton  category
and  creates  a  greater  risk  of  juror  confusion  than  all  the
other situations in which the Court has assumed that jurors
are capable of following limiting instructions. 

III 
The Court’s assault on modern evidence law is not only
wrongheaded;  it  is  totally  unnecessary.    Today’s  decision
vacates the Arizona court’s judgment because the testifying
expert’s testimony was hearsay.  I agree with that bottom
line, but not because of the majority’s novel theory that ba-
sis  testimony  is  always  hearsay.    Rather,  I  would  vacate 
and remand because the expert’s testimony is hearsay un-
der any mainstream conception, including that of the Fed-
eral Rules of Evidence. 

To understand why, begin with the facts.  A state forensic 
scientist, Elizabeth Rast, tested items seized from the de-
fendant and concluded that they were marijuana and meth-
amphetamine.  Rast took notes of her tests, see App. to Pet.
for Cert. 88a–126a, and she signed a report confirming the
results, see id., at 85a–87a.  At trial, Rast was unavailable, 
so  the  prosecution  called  another  forensic  scientist, 
Greggory Longoni, to provide his expert opinion about the 
testing, and Longoni relied on Rast’s report in doing so.

Under Rules 703 and 705, Longoni could have offered his