Court Opinion

ID: 9424588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:12:04.366662+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:51.299780
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Marshall,
dissenting.
This case dramatically illustrates the need for the adoption of new rules regulating the use of joint trials. Here there is no question that Runnels’ alleged statement to the police was not admissible under state law against O’Neil. But as my Brother Brennan points out and as this Court recognized in Bruton v. United States, 391 U. S. 123 (1968), there is a very real danger that the statement was in fact used against O’Neil.
Those that argue for the use of joint trials contend that joint trials, although often resulting in prejudice to recognized rights of one or more of the codefendants, are justified because of the saving of time, money, and energy that result. But, as this case shows, much of the supposed saving is lost through protracted litigation that results from the impingement or near impingement on a codefendant’s rights of confrontation and equal protection.
*636The American Bar Association’s Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Advisory Committee on the Criminal Trial, suggested that if a defendant in a joint trial moves for a severance because the prosecutor intends to introduce an out-of-court statement by his codefendant that is inadmissible against the moving defendant, then the trial court should require the prosecutor to elect between a joint trial in which the statement is excluded; a joint trial at which the statement is admitted but the portion that refers to the moving defendant is effectively deleted; and severance.* I believe that the adoption of such a practice is the only way in which the recurring problems of confrontation and equal protection can be eliminated.

Section 2.3 of the American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Joinder and Severance (Approved Draft 1968) provides:
“Severance of defendants.
“(a) When a defendant moves for a severance because an out-of-court statement of a codefendant makes reference to him but is not admissible against him, the court should determine whether the prosecution intends to offer the statement in evidence at the trial. If so, the court should require the prosecuting attorney to elect one of the following courses:
“(i) a joint trial at which the statement is not admitted into evidence;
“(ii) a joint trial at which the statement is admitted into evidence only after all references to the moving defendant have been effectively deleted; or
“(iii) severance of the moving defendant.”