The Right Against Self-Incrimination

• Author: Alan D. Gold
• Pages: 569-581

The

Right Against

Self-Incrimination

Alan

D.

Gold*

A.

INTRODUCTION

The

privilege

or

right

against

self-incrimination

is

viewed

as a

bedrock

of

our

criminal justice system.

It is not

without

its

price.

If the

authori-

ties could conscript

a

suspect's

assistance

in

establishing

his or her

guilt,

police budgets could

be cut

drastically,

forests

could flourish because

of

the

plummeting necessity

for

paper

to

draw

up

search warrants,

and

law and

order critics could

delete

a

major

"legal

technicality"

from

their

hit

lists.

The

privilege originated

as a

reaction

to the

compulsory examina-

tions conducted

by

medieval ecclesiastical courts,

and

subsequently

the

common

law

courts,

and

"[i]t

soon became settled into

the bed

rock

of

English common

law."1

"By the

time

of the

English

Bill

of

Rights

in

1689,

the

privilege

had

become

so

well established

and

universally recog-

nized

that

to

have

inserted

it

would have

been

very much like

re-affirm-

ing the law of

gravitation."2

*

Of

Gold

and

Associate.

1

F.E.

Inbau,

"Self-Incrimination

—

What

Can An

Accused Person

Be

Compelled

To

Do?"

(1999)

89 J. of

Criminal

Law &

Criminology 1329

at

1330.

2

Ibid,

at

1330,

note

3,

quoting R.C.

Pittman,

"The Colonial

and

Constitutional

History

of the

Privilege Against

Self-Incrimination

in

America"

(1935)

21 Va.

L.

Rev.

763 at

764.

569