Opinion ID: 183995
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Refusing the gunshot residue test

Text: The court was not objectively unreasonable in concluding that defense counsel‘s failure to object during Brown‘s testimony was not an error so serious as to render counsel‘s performance deficient. The trooper testified that Tim did not have his hands tested because ―he said he wasn‘t going to permit it.‖ (App. at 552a.) Under Supreme Court and Pennsylvania precedent, the testimony that Tim did not permit a gunshot residue test does not implicate Tim‘s right to silence because the admission into evidence of a defendant‘s refusal to submit to a physical test does not offend the right against selfincrimination under the Fifth Amendment. See South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 564 (1983); Commonwealth v. Monahan, 549 A.2d 231, 235–36 (Pa. 1988).