"What If John Wilkes Booth Went To Trial?"

[Thomas Thorne]

No defendant in a Federal trial-civil or military-was allowed to testify on his own behalf until 1878. Only one state-Maine-permitted defendant testimony in 1865. England did not permit this until 1898.

The prohibition of defandant testimony-and defendant statements and witnesses even quoting defendant statements-except those made during the commission of a crime derived from the following Common Law precept: As trials were designed to elicit the truth and defendants were considered as a class least likely to tell the truth, their testimony was not to be trusted. It was also felt that defendants testifying would have an unfair advantage over those of their colleagues charged with the same crime who exercised their right not to testify.
Tom