Opinion ID: 1744539
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Advice to Take the Witness Stand

Text: As we noted earlier, Stanford testified that he had conferred with the defendant at the close of the state's case and advised him to take the stand and tell the truth. Our review of the record has convinced us that the defendant was adequately informed of the consequences of taking the stand. Given the defendant's penchant for stretching the truth, we cannot say that the trial court erred in finding Stanford's testimony as to the circumstances under which the defendant took the stand more credible than the defendant's. The record is clear that the defendant chose to disregard the advice of his attorney to tell the truth and instead chose to perjure himself while under oath. Even if we were to assume, arguendo, that the defendant was totally unaware that he might be impeached with his admittedly untrue prior statement, we are loathe to reward such dishonesty with a new trial. Any reasonably competent counsel would have advised his client to take the stand and tell the truth if it were his best professional opinion that such truthfulness might result in an acquittal. This defendant simply chose to ignore such sound advice when belief in his credibility was the single most important element of his defense. In our opinion, it was the defendant's persistent untruthfulness which destroyed his own credibility and paved the way for his conviction. In conclusion, we find that any mistakes which were made by Stanford in the preparation and trial of this case were more attributable to the defendant's decided lack of cooperation and lack of veracity than to Stanford's alleged incompetence. Stanford's strategic and tactical decisions were rendered ineffective by the defendant's decision to continuously perjure himself and skirt the truth. This assignment is without merit.