Opinion ID: 2211408
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Fifth Amendment Privilege

Text: The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. [10] This prohibition not only permits a person to refuse to testify against himself at a criminal trial in which he is a defendant, but also `privileges him not to answer official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings.'  Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U.S. 420, 426, 104 S.Ct. 1136, 79 L.Ed.2d 409 (1984). However, as the Fifth Amendment privilege speaks only of compulsion, it is not concerned `with moral and psychological pressures to confess emanating from sources other than official coercion.'  Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 170, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986). It does not preclude a witness from testifying voluntarily in matters which may incriminate him. Murphy, supra at 427, 104 S.Ct. 1136.