Taking the Fifth: When What You Say Could Be Used Against You

<p>The Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause says that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." Basically, it means that the government, or law enforcement, can't force you to talk to implicate yourself in a crime. However, what that looks like in practice... is a little more messy.  When do you have a right to remain silent? When do you become a suspect? What does compulsion look like? Can your silence be used against you? </p><p>We talk about how the Supreme Court has interpreted these questions, and how to exercise Fifth Amendment right when you are interacting with law enforcement, with <a href="https://www.law.ufl.edu/faculty/tracey-maclin" target="_blank">Tracey Maclin</a>, a professor of Constitutional law and Constitutional criminal procedure at the University of Florida's Levin School of Law, and <a href="https://law.yale.edu/jorge-x-camacho" target="_blank">Jorge Camacho</a>, a clinical lecturer on law and policing at Yale University, where he is the policy director of the Yale <a href="https://www.justicehappenshere.yale.edu/" target="_blank">Justice Collaboratory</a>. </p><p> </p>