Mark Steyn — who has done a wonderful job blogging the Conrad Black trial — reports that the case will go to the jury next week after the defense rested this week with Black electing not to testify.
The Black’s defense team strategy in holding Black off the witness stand is risky. As Martha Stewart and Jamie Olis learned the hard way, jurors in white collar criminal cases expect to hear the defendants explain why the government’s charges are not true. When the jurors do not hear from the defendant, no jury instruction will ever remove the seeds of doubt from the jurors’ minds that the defendant is trying to hide something. Granted, as Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay experienced, testifying in one’s own defense certainly does not assure a successful defense. Likewise, the courtroom dynamics of each trial are different, so those in play in the Black trial courtroom may favor Black staying off the stand. But as the late Edward Bennett Williams used to advise his white collar criminal clients, “If you elect not to testify, then you better bring your toothbrush with you to the courthouse.” Inasmuch as the government’s case in the Black trial appears to be extraordinarily weak, here’s hoping that the Black defense team’s decision to keep Black off the stand does not come back to haunt them.