What happens if I don't testify — will the jury hold it against me?

The legal protection is strong. The jury receives a specific instruction that a defendant's decision not to testify cannot be considered, and the State is prohibited from commenting on it — a comment that violates this can produce a mistrial or a reversal.

The realistic assessment. Jurors are human, and some will wonder. Experienced defense counsel plans for that rather than pretending it doesn't exist, addressing the burden of proof directly in closing and framing the trial around what the State failed to prove rather than what the defendant didn't say.

What actually influences it: whether the defense presented a coherent account through other evidence. A case where the defense cross-examined effectively and raised concrete doubts doesn't leave jurors waiting for the defendant to explain. A case where the defense did little does.

So the answer isn't just about the instruction. It's about whether the rest of the trial gave jurors somewhere to go.