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I wonder what would happen, if a criminal picks a passphrase that admits his crime. Since the defendant cannot be forced to self-incriminate himself, wouldn't t
by einrealist 7y ago
I wonder what would happen, if a criminal picks a passphrase that admits his crime. Since the defendant cannot be forced to self-incriminate himself, wouldn't that be a perfect defense?
- pas 7y agoCourts and the law doesn't work like that. (See the funny problem of which court would have jurisdiction if a murder would happen in some strange part of a forest, which happens to be Federal land, and also intersect some state borders, and at first glance the currently valid statutes say that the trial should be held somewhere where there's no judge because of some lines on a map.) But could you give an example of what kind of string could self-incriminate someone?
- jsjohnst 7y ago> But could you give an example of what kind of string could self-incriminate someone? You can conjure up the previous scenario but not one for this simple case? “I am guilty of XYZ offense” Seems like a pretty obvious example.
- pas 7y agoHow would that mean anything? It's just a password. A testimony is not anything you utter without context.
- jsjohnst 7y ago> A testimony is not anything you utter without context. Go ahead and get arrested and say incriminating statements without context. Let us all know how it goes!
- pas 7y agoIf you get to trial and the judge orders you to produce the password, then and there is the time to say it. It becomes a matter of public record, you don't even have to say it continuously, you can spell it, or whatever.
- Cerium 7y agoYou could run a "Who's on first" and set the password to "I plead the fifth"?
- jsjohnst 7y agoHah. I may or may not have used something vaguely similar on my phone in the past.