4 ms·
"Detectives persuaded a magistrate judge to sign a search warrant ordering Usry to provide his DNA for comparison" "His DNA, Hoffman wrote, did not match the
by manarth 10y ago
"Detectives persuaded a magistrate judge to sign a search warrant ordering Usry to provide his DNA for comparison"
"His DNA, Hoffman wrote, did not match the semen from the scene of Dodge’s murder."
This sounds a lot like he was forced to prove his innocence, rather than the judiciary being forced to prove his guilt.
- rayiner 10y agoThe judiciary cannot force you to prove your innocence. But it can force you to provide evidence, which the state may then be able to use to prove your guilt. Everybody has a duty to cooperate with litigation. Even third party witnesses who are not "on trial" can be compelled to take testify about what they saw or heard.
- manarth 10y ago[The judiciary] can force you to provide evidence. Everybody has a duty to cooperate with litigation. The 5th Amendment appears to explicitly contradict those examples.
- rayiner 10y agoWrits subpoena (court orders to testify or produce documents) had been part of the English legal system for almost 400 years at the time the Constitution was written. So when the Framers wrote that no one "shall be compelled in any [1] criminal case [2] to be a witness [3] against himself," that's what they meant. Had they intended to limit courts' subpoena power in civil cases, as to non-testimonial conduct, or as to testimony against other people, they would have said so.