A Comment About

Pleading the Fifth: Gunwalker Witness Refuses to Testify

January 20, 2012 - 10:37 am - by Bob Owens
Sam
2012-01-20 21:25:27

Actually it is, that part about being innocent and all.
By definition you would expect the innocent cannot incriminate themselves.

If a declaration of innocence can be used as an admission of guilt then it must be recognized that the right to remain silent goes above and beyond merely avoid self-incrimination to actively forestalling any charges in the first place.

Particularly when phrased in the manner used in this article, saying the Fifth Amendment only protects against self-incrimination is declaring that it only protects you from having to confess which is saying that invoking it is a de facto admission of guilt.
That is not true, and indeed fundamentally the opposite of what was intended.