On the trial of all indictments, informations, complaints, and other proceedings against persons charged with the commission of crimes, offenses, and misdemeanors in this state, the person so charged shall, at his own request, but not otherwise, be a competent witness. The failure of the person so charged to make such a request shall not create any presumption against him.
Ark. Code Ann. § 16-43-501
Accused as witness
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Houghton v. State (2015)
Most recently applied in Houghton v. State (June 2015)
Acts 1885, No. 82, § 1, p. 126; C. & M
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.