I thought long and hard about blogging this after I got a phone call yesterday from a friend. Everything was cool until they asked me, “so do you think R. Kelly is going to jail?”

While I admit to watching the tape, I just can’t get into celebrity trials. Mainly because I can’t keep up with the cast of characters and with R. Kelly’s trial particularly, it has been delayed for so long, one would think that he is going to get off (no pun intended).

But when a celebrity or a non celebrity doesn’t take the stand or doesn’t want to testify, does that automatically mean that they are guilty? Or is it because they have a good team of lawyers that suggested to them that they don’t do so? More under the hood.

“R. Kelly told the judge in his child pornography trial Tuesday that he doesn’t plan to testify in his own defense.

After Judge Vincent Gaughan told Kelly he had a right to not testify, the R&B singer leaned forward at the defense table with his hands folded and — speaking for the first time at the trial — responded: “I decided not to testify.”

The jury wasn’t in the room at the time.

Kelly, 41, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he videotaped himself having sex with an underage girl. Both Kelly and the alleged victim, now 23, have denied being on the tape.” (source)

So does this help or harm the case if he doesn’t want to testify?