Can innocent people plead the 5th?

[SmarterthanYou]

Nobody is innocent.

They are either guilty or not guilty.

what crime or crimes has this individual committed to no longer be innocent?

 

[domer76]

This message is hidden because the moron, Notsmarterthanayew, is on your ignore list.

 

[Jarod]

Anyone has a right to use the 5th and they should.

This is simply untrue. How would you ever compel testimony if everyone was always allowed to plea the 5th. If you are a witness and you try to plead the fifth a Judge must make a ruling that what you would testify could reasonable incriminate you.

In civil court, if you are the defendant and take the fifth, it CAN be used against you.

 

[Airstrip One]

Yet that isn't what you previously said.

Mirror, get one

Here is what I previously have said over the past few days (search "plead," one week results)

"Can't" simply suggests physical/legal inability to do so. If innocent people "don't," or choose not to do so, then, it still means that those who do plead the 5th are guilty.

I am reasonably sure that no one has declared that guilty people "can't" plead the 5th, as though it was some kind of legal rule. There has simply been a lot of moral pronouncements made about the sort of people who do plead the 5th.

Are you actually claiming Trump said innocent people cannot plead the fifth?

Is that what Trump was quoted as saying?

Then perhaps you can find a quote of me claiming I said Trump previous stated that guilty people "cannot" or "must not" plead the 5th. Because I'd hate to think you were lying about my position.

Are you finished lying to my face, Yurt?

 

[Airstrip One]

Where did Yurt disappear to? He has a retraction to make!!

:tombushes:

 

[Jarod]

Which the police often create. Now imagine a huge investigation with hundreds of people questioned where an ambiguous answer can, and often will, cause you to face charges of "lying" to the questioning authority...

Pretty much any good attorney would tell you to either plead the fifth or simply say, "I do not recall."

In a situation where you are accused or investigated for a crime, yes. It is short sighted to suggest there are not other situations where you would not be allowed to “take the fifth”!

 

[sear]

Silence is not an eternal commitment.
If a subject or suspect is questioned, that subject or suspect may remain silent initially, yet cooperate fully with investigators at a future time.

The converse is not true. Disclose incriminating details initially, they can't be un-disclosed later on. Don't ring any unringable bells.