Opinion ID: 1537041
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Appellant next requests

Text: this Honorable Court ... to determine, whether in this case, the Trial Court should have conducted an on the record inquiry to determine whether Mr. Watson made an informed decision as to whether he knew prior to testifying, that he was validly, knowingly, and intelligently, waiving his Fifth Amendment Constitutional Right. In so doing, he acknowledges that the lack of such an inquiry by the trial court is reviewable in this case only for plain error. This claim, however, is foreclosed by our decision in Pinckney v. United States, 906 A.2d 301 (D.C.2006), decided after the parties here had submitted their briefs, which rejected the same argument. We have held that a trial court committed reversible error by failing to determine whether the record demonstrated that a non-testifying defendant had made a knowing and intelligent waiver of her fundamental and personal right to testify at trial. See Boyd v. United States, 586 A.2d 670, 674-680 (1991). In Pinckney, however, we refused to extend this holding to circumstances in which the trial court did not advise the defendant that he had a Fifth Amendment right not to testify: Boyd stands for the proposition that a defendant's right to testify on his own behalf in a criminal trial is one that may only be waived by the defendant and suggests that when a defendant does not testify, the trial court should establish an on-the-record waiver to establish that the defendant knew of his right to testify on his own behalf before choosing not to do so. It follows, therefore, that where the defendant elects to testify on his own behalf ... Boyd does not govern. Even if Boyd's concern for ensuring a defendant's knowing waiver of a constitutional right were extended to a testifying defendant, the trial court did not plainly err in failing to advise appellant of his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, where appellant was represented by counsel and there was no indication that appellant was unduly compelled to testify. 906 A.2d 301, 307 (D.C.2006) (citations omitted). As in Pinckney, appellant here was represented by counsel. He has also not alleged, nor does the record indicate, that he was in any way pressured to testify. We therefore hold there was no Fifth Amendment violation. [4] The Superior Court's judgment of conviction is accordingly affirmed. SCHWELB, Senior Judge, concurring in the judgment but dissenting in part from the analysis: