Thomas F. Siciliano v. George Vose, Superintendent, MCI Norfolk

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• concluding that a defendant’s strategic decision not to testify, “at the strong urg ing of counsel,” was not a constitutional violation
• noting that defendant had heard the trial judge state that defendant \may testify\
• noting that defendant had heard the trial judge state that defendant \may testify\
• requiring the court to secure an on-the-record explicit waiver could inappropriately influence the defendant to waive his constitutional right not to testify, thus threatening the exercise of this other, converse, constitutionally explicit, and more fragile right
• declining to require trial court to follow specific procedure explicitly canvassing defendant on right to testify, as trial court ‘‘could inappropriately influence the defendant to waive his constitutional right not to testify’’ (emphasis altered)
• “[A] criminal defendant ‘must claim’ his privilege or right to testify ‘by attempting to take the stand or it is waived.’”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).