[HN Gopher] Wedding Photographer Spent a Year in Jail After Plea...
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Wedding Photographer Spent a Year in Jail After Pleading the Fifth
Author : jakobdabo
Score : 14 points
Date : 2023-08-18 21:01 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (petapixel.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (petapixel.com)
| imwillofficial wrote:
| This is a loop hole that is often exploited to punish people
| without the application of due process.
|
| Terrible.
| fatfingerd wrote:
| He doesn't have the right to plead the 5th to avoid testifying
| against anyone but himself or his spouse, so his attempts to
| plead the 5th were just nonsense. Making an issue now seems to
| me like the "justice" connected criminals he was protecting by
| his contempt are somehow more worthy of rights than everyone
| they have used this tool on.
| singleshot_ wrote:
| Nitpick: When you refuse to testify against your spouse you
| are invoking spousal communication privilege, or spousal
| testimonial privilege, not 5A.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > He doesn't have the right to plead the 5th to avoid
| testifying against anyone but himself or his spouse, so his
| attempts to plead the 5th were just nonsense
|
| That's not true, you can invoke the Fifth anytime testimony
| might incriminate you, regardless of who it is directly
| against. If this is founded (which may itself be contested if
| it isn't directly against yourself), you can't be compelled
| to testify unless the potential for self-incrimination is
| neutralized by immunity.
|
| However, in this case there was no real self-incrimination
| concern.
| fatfingerd wrote:
| Yes, I meant the 5th is only to avoid testimony
| incriminating himself, which he couldn't do.
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| No, the "right to remain silent" is absolute. It's a
| refusal to testify to anything at all. The grounds of
| self-incrimination are there, but if nobody knows what
| you'll be asked or how you'll answer, those grounds are
| sort of immaterial.
| tarxvf wrote:
| One always has the right to remain silent, for any reason.
| Compelled speech is immoral. (And rights do not come from the
| government)
|
| The people telling you otherwise are not interested in
| protecting you or anyone else.
| ethanbond wrote:
| Rights don't come from your government but the protection
| of those rights does, so tomato tomato.
| singleshot_ wrote:
| When you say loophole, do you mean the fact you have no 5A
| right against self incrimination once you are grAnted immunity?
| Or something else?
| ethanbond wrote:
| The guy happened to be a photographer, but his being subpoenaed
| and held in contempt had to do with him refusing to testify
| against his corrupt DEA brother. He "pled the Fifth" to avoid, in
| his own words, testifying _against his brother,_ which is not
| what the 5th Amendment protects. His lawyer claimed he was
| pleading the 5th to prevent accidentally perjuring himself, but
| there's no such thing as accidentally perjuring oneself.
| Prosecutors have to prove you willfully and knowingly told a
| falsehood.
|
| This is just someone paying the cost they have to pay to protect
| their criminal brother.
|
| Seems like due process working well AFAICT.
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(page generated 2023-08-18 23:02 UTC)