Villarreal v. Texas · ¶85

I am unable to join the majority opinion because it unnecessarily expands these precedents. It purports to “announce” a “rule” under which a defendant has a constitutional right to “discussion of testimony” so long as that discussion is “incidental to other topics.” Ante, at 477, 478, n. 5. It identifes new circumstances, not presented here, in which a defendant supposedly has a right to discuss matters related to his ongoing testimony. Ante, at 477–479. And it endorses a methodology under which “any confict between the Sixth Amendment and the desire for untutored testimony must `be resolved in favor of the right to the assistance and guidance of counsel.' ” Ante, at 478.

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