Court Opinion

ID: 9698909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:03:43.684863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:44.542455
License: Public Domain

*290TAMILIA, Judge,
concurring:
I vote to join Cavanaugh, J., and remark only that despite trial counsel’s presumed strategy to avoid having the jury “reminded” that appellant did not testify, my experience in talking to jurors and lay people in general leads me to believe there is a common impression that a person who does not testify in his own defense is concealing something or is guilty. The charge which instructs the jury to remove from their minds any belief that a party is guilty because of failure to testify deals with this almost universal perception. The harm which it attempts to obviate far exceeds the occasional strategic benefit counsel might believe is achieved by failure to enunciate the principle to the jury. Failing to give the charge also sets up an argument for ineffective counsel when review by other counsel, with a different viewpoint, leads to the conclusion that the charge should have been given. This is a matter in which we cannot second guess the trial judge.