California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Strand, A128629 (Cal. App. 2011):
"The Fifth Amendment to the federal Constitution provides that no person 'shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.' . . . The right not to testify would be vitiated if the jury could draw adverse inferences from a defendant's failure to testify. Thus, the Fifth Amendment entitles a criminal defendant, upon request, to an instruction that will 'minimize the danger that the jury will give evidentiary weight to a defendant's failure to testify.' " (People v. Leonard (2007) 40 Cal.4th 1370, 1424-1425.) A juror's violation of an instruction not to consider the defendant's failure to testify constitutes misconduct. (Id. at p. 1425.)
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