To: BikerNYC
"Remember the Enron guys invoking the Priviledge during Congress' civil investigation of that debacle? You can invoke in civil proceedings."
I think you are confusing laws here, and what you can do while testifying before congress.
29 posted on
07/22/2004 6:59:09 AM PDT by
Badeye
("The day you stop learning, is the day you begin dying")
To: Badeye
Oh, for cripes sake. If you ever get called as a witness in a civil proceeding, and your testimony might incriminate you in some future criminal proceeding, please, please, please see a lawyer before you testify. By so testifying, you could be considered to have waived your priviledge.
I'm sure your lawyer will quote to you some language from the Supreme Court decision in Lefkowitz v. Turley, cited in my previous post:
The Fifth Amendment provides that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." The Amendment not only protects the individual against being involuntarily called as a witness against himself in a criminal prosecution 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. McCarthy v. Arndstein, 266 U.S. 34, 40 (1924), squarely held that
"[t]he privilege is not ordinarily dependent upon the nature of the proceeding in which the testimony is sought or is to be used. It applies alike to civil and criminal proceedings, wherever the answer might tend to subject to criminal responsibility him who gives it. The privilege protects a mere witness as fully as it does one who is also a party defendant."
And, for your sake, don't go around telling people of your opinion on this matter, it doesn't make you sound so good.
30 posted on
07/22/2004 7:09:08 AM PDT by
BikerNYC
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