Self-Incrimination

jul 06, 2021

white and black printer paper — Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Legal Definition and Related Resources of Self-incrimination

☑️ This definition is part of the content of Lawi's courses, guides, tools and other solutions and the world's leading and largest online law dictionary. It offers legal definitions, synonyms, word origins, translations, meanings, example sentences, and more. It is considered a trusted authority, a broad glossary of legal terms and an unsurpassed guide for professionals, students and researchers in any discipline related to law and, in general, to the social sciences. Do you like what you read? Can I ask a favor from you? Like and share it with your family and friends so that others can discover it too. If you have been forwarded this text, please subscribe here.

Meanings, Synonyms, Etymology, Translations and More

Meaning of Self-incrimination

The Fifth amendment to the federal constitution guarantees the privilege of an individual against selfincrimination and this privilege is further protected by the Fourteenth Amendment against abridgement thereof by the states. See Re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 87S. Ct. 1428,18 L.Ed.2d527. It protects the right of a person to remain silent unless he chooses to speak in the free exercise of his own will, and he can be subject to no penalty for such silence. Mallory v Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489,12 L. Ed.2d653. The privilege against self- incrimination protects a witness from being compelled to give testimony which will subject him to prosecution or which will expose him to a reasonable possibility of prosecution, or will prove the whole crime in question , unaided by the testimony of others or will tend to conviction when combined with proof of other circumstances which others may supply. See Empack v United States , 349 U.S. 190, 75 S.Ct. 687, 99 L.Ed. 997. The purpose of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination is to offer protection against being compelled to give testimony leading to the infliction of penalties affixed to criminal acts. See Kastigar v United States, 406 U.S. 441, 92 S. Ct. 1653, 32 L.Ed.2d212.

Related Entries of Self-incrimination in the Lawi Project

Browse or run a search for Self-incrimination in the legal resources (including dictionaries and American law definitions), the Asian legal platform, the European law platform, the British legal resources or the Latin American and Spanish platform and publications (Lawi) about law in the world.