Opinion ID: 743074
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Right to Testify On One's Own Behalf

Text: 86 The Constitution provides a criminal defendant with an implicit right to testify in his own defense. United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87, 96, 113 S.Ct. 1111, 1117, 122 L.Ed.2d 445 (1993); Rock, 483 U.S. at 49, 107 S.Ct. at 2708. That right springs from the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, the Sixth Amendment's guarantee that [i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, U.S. Const. Amend. VI, and is also a necessary corollary of the Fifth Amendment's guarantee against compelled testimony. 16 Rock, 483 U.S. at 51-53, 107 S.Ct. at 2708-10. 87 As noted in the discussion of the defendant's right to be present at trial, the Supreme Court has already held that commentary which chills the defendant's right to testify on his own behalf is unconstitutional. Griffin, 380 U.S. at 615, 85 S. Ct. at 1233. The remarks made by the prosecution here have a similar chilling effect upon the same right by forcing the defendant to choose between having his testimony viewed without unfair comment or exercising his constitutional rights to testify and to be present at trial. We therefore hold that these summation comments violate a defendant's right to testify on his own behalf and correspondingly the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. 88