Opinion ID: 588163
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: How a Jury Would Understand the Statement

Text: 125 The second part of the test requires a determination of whether the jury would naturally and necessarily take the statement to be a comment on [the defendant's] failure to testify. [T]he question is not whether the jury possibly or even probably would view the remark in this manner, but whether the jury necessarily would have done so. Carter, 760 F.2d at 1578 (quoting Carrodeguas, 747 F.2d at 1395) (quoting Williams v. Wainwright, 673 F.2d 1182, 1185 (11th Cir.1982)). If the jury correctly heard the prosecutor's question, it would not have construed the question to be an impermissible comment about a defendant's decision to take the stand. Further, the trial court's curative instruction was adequate. See United States v. Capo, 693 F.2d 1330, 1335 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1092, 103 S.Ct. 1793, 76 L.Ed.2d 359 (1983). 126