Opinion ID: 1829968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 41

Heading: Explanatory Instruction on Hansen's Failure to Testify

Text: Hansen next argues that the Circuit Court erred when it refused his instruction on his failure to testify at the penalty phase. [17] Such instructions have in the past been granted in non-capital cases and at the guilt phase of capital cases, albeit within the Circuit Court's discretion. We have never held the instruction required in any setting. In Turner v. State, 573 So.2d 657 (Miss. 1990), the defendant did not testify during the guilt phase but did appear at the sentencing phase. During final argument at the sentencing phase, the prosecuting attorney commented upon the defendant's failure to take the witness stand. The defendant argued this comment violated his constitutional rights and Miss. Code Ann. § 13-1-9 (1972). The Turner Court directed that the comment not be repeated at retrial. In Williams v. State, 445 So.2d 798, 814 (Miss. 1984), during the sentencing phase, the prosecution commented on the fact the defendant had not testified during the guilt phase but had made a statement (which was unsworn) during the sentencing phase. The Williams Court held this error which, when considered with other errors, required reversal for a new sentencing hearing. Read together, Williams and Turner establish the capital defendant's privilege against self-incrimination  secured to him by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and, independently, by Article 3, Section 26, of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890  attend him at his penalty phase trial. But this does not mean he is of right entitled to the requested instruction. In this case the jury was correctly instructed during the guilt phase regarding Hansen's right to remain silent, and no comment upon this right is at issue here. While it would not have been error had the Court granted the requested instruction, the matter is one largely committed to the Court's sound discretion which we do not consider here to have been abused.