If I am on a jury, I want to hear from the defendant, especially since much of the decision might hang on his state of mind that night. I wish there was a special rule where each juror could ask two questions of the defendant after the lawyers took their shots.
I am listening. Unless something twists up on him, I think he’s doing an excellent job, and seems to be a very wholesome young guy with good intentions. JMHO
I understand the urge, but that is why the judge is supposed to instruct the jury not to consider that. Defendants have a right not to testify in their own trials for a reason.
There's a move to allow jurors to ask questions, at least in civil cases, but I think it's a terrible idea. Jurors frequently want to ask questions that are prohibited by the rules of evidence, or are irrelevant to the actual issues they are asked to resolve. Let the lawyers do their jobs.
Simply write them down and pass them to the bailiff and he gives them to the judge who asks them.
A defendants refusal to testify is a RIGHT…
The impetus of the state is to PROVE its case, it is not on the defendant to prove his innocence.
If you need to hear from the defendant to make your verdict then the state didn’t prove its case, period.
Exactly
The second I hear ANYTHING like ‘No comment’, or ‘I take the 5th’, or or someone doesn’t testify I am going to go with ‘guilty’.
Never ever going to trust someone who can’t explain themselves for themselves.