Unkart, Rodney Gale

in which PRICE, WOMACK, KEASLER, HERVEY, COCHRAN, and ALCALA, JJ., joined.

During voir dire, the trial judge said that he personally would want to testify if accused of a crime but admonished the prospective jurors that others might have a different perspective, that a defendant could have good reasons not to testify that were unrelated to guilt, and that the law prohibited the jurors from holding a defendant’s failure to testify against him. Defense counsel belatedly requested a mistrial but did not ask for an instruction to disregard the trial judge’s comments. Holding that the comments…