Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BitYakin the I refuse to answer because it may incriminate me begs the question, if you had done nothing criminal how could answering incriminate you?? 1a. Answers can be used against you. 1b. Under pressure, you're more likely to give a poor answer (i.e. one that may hurt your case). 1c. Your advocate (i.e. lawyer) is trained to consider your best interests, and experienced with the police and courts, and will- if competent- be able to consider what information should be passed to the police and how that information should be worded to best serve your interests. Let's say you've had a blackout from drinking or whatever, and the police tell you that you've done something. Reeling from the way your life is suddenly no longer on sure footing, you give impulsive or poorly considered answers. Like a majority of humans, you resort to confabulation to fill some of the blanks in your memory, without even realizing it. A foundation for a conviction has now been laid, even if you didn't actually do anything. 2a. Dishonest answers are a problem for all parties involved. 2b. Answering the question honestly may touch on other sensitive matters, even if you haven't committed any crime. 2c. Withholding information about those irrelevant (for the case) sensitive matters may be construed as guilt unless that is prohibited. Let's say you've been out with your mistress. Police want to question you about a crime for which you have an alibi with her, but where the specifics matter, such that you cannot provide the details they want without divulging your affair and thus potentially harming your marriage or even incriminating yourself in some circumstances. Lying will be a problem, tends to be criminal, and invariably arouses suspicion. Talking around the affair and clamming up about that part of it, obviously, will seem like you're hiding something, because you are. So, you don't talk at all, and let your advocate sort out the details of what you should and shouldn't say. 3. You're under no obligation to cooperate in this way, guilty or not. Proving your guilt is the prosecution's role, not yours. 4. It raises the question, rather than begging it. Just some thoughts... IWYW, — Aswad.
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"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way. We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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