After a jury convicted Anthony Barnes of statutory rape, enticing a child for indecent purposes, child molestation, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, he appealed denial of his motion for a new trial. Although the trial court gave most of the requested instruction on a defendant’s silence, it omitted the direction that jurors must not rely on Barnes’s decision not to testify; counsel did not object. The Court of Appeals held the omission was plain error under Georgia’s four-part test: precedent required the instruction, the error affected Barnes’s substantial rights, and it seriously impaired the fairness of the proceeding. The court reversed the denial of a new trial and did not reach Barnes’s remaining claims. Judge Rickman specially concurred, reasoning that Georgia Supreme Court precedent required reversal without a prejudice inquiry, in tension with the later outcome-focused plain-error test.