A method for operating a receiving device includes determining reliability ratings for undecoded data streams in a received transmission, selecting an undecoded data stream in the received transmission in accordance with the determined reliability ratings, thereby producing a selected data stream, and decoding the selected data stream with a decoding trellis, thereby producing a data symbol. The method also includes updating the decoding trellis in accordance with the data symbol, and repeating the selecting, the decoding, and the updating for remaining undecoded data streams in the received transmission.