@kingofwale 5th Amendment is the right against self-incrimination. Normally in depositions you are compelled to answer questions truthfully and under oath just as in court. However the 5th Amendment protects the witness where the witness's testimony may be self-incrimination. Additionally, no negative inference can be made from "claiming the 5th."
From Wikipedia: "The fifth amendment protects witnesses from being forced to incriminate themselves. To "plead the Fifth" is to refuse to answer a question because the response could provide self-incriminating evidence of an illegal conduct punished by fines, penalties or forfeiture."
@freddych The part I find to be difficult is the 'no negative assumptions' thing. I mean, maybe you're trying to be careful or whatever, but an innocent person shouldn't be afraid.
I mean, "I can't answer your question because I would probably get convicted. But I'm innocent, yeah?"
I understand that we *shouldn't* view those who plead the 5th in a negative light, but it just kind of hits me that way. Perhaps someday I myself will have to do it for a perfectly good reason... then I'll gladly eat my assumptions.
One thing important to note is that pleading the 5th is not just refusing to incriminate yourself in the specific proceedings of the trial you are in, but also in any other way. For example, if you were a witness to a crime, and you plead the 5th in court, it may be that you were not involved in that crime at all, but happened to be robbing the liquor store across the street when you witnessed the crime.
Good judges will also remind the jury that pleading the 5th is not an implicit admission of guilt, although in this case I do believe everyone involved "gots some 'splain'in to do"
Also sometimes your story can be misconstrued when other corroborating evidence is not currently present to prove that the circumstance was either happenstance or that you were possibly performing the actions under duress.
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to our dear American friends:
Please explain us what the Fifth Amendment rights is here. "I shall have the right to spy thy neighbour's wife"?????
@kingofwale 5th Amendment is the right against self-incrimination. Normally in depositions you are compelled to answer questions truthfully and under oath just as in court. However the 5th Amendment protects the witness where the witness's testimony may be self-incrimination. Additionally, no negative inference can be made from "claiming the 5th."
@kingofwale
From Wikipedia:
"The fifth amendment protects witnesses from being forced to incriminate themselves. To "plead the Fifth" is to refuse to answer a question because the response could provide self-incriminating evidence of an illegal conduct punished by fines, penalties or forfeiture."
@kingofwale
One, two, three, four, FIF
@freddych The part I find to be difficult is the 'no negative assumptions' thing. I mean, maybe you're trying to be careful or whatever, but an innocent person shouldn't be afraid.
I mean, "I can't answer your question because I would probably get convicted. But I'm innocent, yeah?"
I understand that we *shouldn't* view those who plead the 5th in a negative light, but it just kind of hits me that way. Perhaps someday I myself will have to do it for a perfectly good reason... then I'll gladly eat my assumptions.
@kingofwale
One thing important to note is that pleading the 5th is not just refusing to incriminate yourself in the specific proceedings of the trial you are in, but also in any other way. For example, if you were a witness to a crime, and you plead the 5th in court, it may be that you were not involved in that crime at all, but happened to be robbing the liquor store across the street when you witnessed the crime.
Good judges will also remind the jury that pleading the 5th is not an implicit admission of guilt, although in this case I do believe everyone involved "gots some 'splain'in to do"
@kingofwale
Also sometimes your story can be misconstrued when other corroborating evidence is not currently present to prove that the circumstance was either happenstance or that you were possibly performing the actions under duress.