Does a defendant have a right not to testify at trial if he is not able to answer the questions on the witness list?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Dean, B253077 (Cal. App. 2016):
answers to these questions, with the implicit observation he could answer those questions and the explicit, albeit strategically phrased, reference to his failure to do so by testifying at trial,20 violated his constitutional right not to testifyGriffin error. (Griffin v. California (1965) 380 U.S. 609 [85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106] (Griffin).)21
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