August 16, 2018
Regular readers of this blog have probably figured out by now that I am a big fan of the First Amendment. I really, really, REALLY like the concept that people are free to speak their minds, even when that speech is repugnant or utterly ill-informed. The First Amendment was truly revolutionary, and continues to amaze, astonish and dazzle.
I also happen to think the Fifth Amendment is a pretty good thing, too.
I mention this because the media have noted that Paul Manafort’s defense rested yesterday without calling him as a witness (or, for that matter, without calling any witnesses at all). I haven’t been following the trial closely, but I sure hope that nobody — nobody — infers from his decision not to testify that he is somehow guilty. He has a right not to testify, and that right is of no value if the jury ignores it.
The whole point of a criminal trial is to put the government to its burden of convincing every member of the jury that it has established the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant has no obligation to do anything.
In fact, in the two criminal jury trials I have tried this year, I introduced no evidence, my client did not testify, and in both cases my client was found not guilty. What was the point in putting my client on the stand if the State’s evidence was insufficient to prove its case?
Manafort may or may not have done what he is accused of doing. But the fact that he chose not to testify is legally irrelevant.