bruton error
Bruton error (broot-[schwa]n). The violation of a criminal defendant’s constitutional right of confrontation by admitting into evidence a nontestifying codefendant’s confession that implicates both of them, where the statement is not admissible against the defendant under any exception to the hearsay rule. • The error is not cured by a limiting instruction to the jury to consider the confession only against the one who made it, because of the high risk that the jury will disregard the instruction. Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620 (1968). [Cases: Criminal Law 662.10, 662.11. C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 1130–1131.]
