I have been subpoenaed to a court trial and I would like to exercised my right to not incriminate myself ?

Question

By not speaking I have given statements and I just want them to use my statements and not make me speak on the stand how do I do this can I do this? thank you for your help

I am not the one on trial!!

Answer 1

If you have made statements against your own penal interest, you (incriminate you in any of this wrong doing), you have the right to request that you be appointed counsel. Then, you should expect that there will be some meeting of the minds between your attorney, the prosecutor and the court that you be immunized (granted immunity) againt self-incrimination in exchange for your honest testimony in this matter. If you have made incriminating statements and you have not been prosecuted thus far, immunity should not be hard to obtain. If your are not offered immunity, and what you have to say will actually incriminate you (not just make you look bad to the defendant and/or others) you have a right to openly assert your fifth amendment right against self incrimination.

If you have made statements that do not incriminate you:

You may respond to questions saying that you do not recall or can't remember, at which time the prosecutor will use your statement to refresh your memory and it is just that. You will be asked to review the portion of the statement that answers the question being asked, and respond while not reading from the statement.

If you respond to questions with an answer other than I can't recall/remember or the answer that you previously gave, then your statement will be used to impeach your credibility (basically suggest that you are a liar--either lying then or lying now). This is often times can cut both ways, you may be impeached by either attorney (especially if you've given various statements and/or statements to either side). Many times the prosecution will say that you are lying (if you're impeached on the stand) to help the defendant, which most juries believe. Whereas, the defense will suggest that you're lying (if they impeach you) because the prosecution put you up to it. Jurors rarely fall for that.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Your written statements are admissible to the court as evidence as if you had made those statements as testimony on the stand. If they want you to simply repeat those statements, then you have two options: 1) Claim that you cannot remember the exact statements and request a copy of your written statements for verification and memory assistance, 2) Ask the court to have the statements read for you by reason of emotional distress (for example). Beyond that, while you cannot plead the fifth for requests of elaboration which you believe may incriminate you, there are still three powerful options available to you: 1) Memory, say, "I forget the details concerning that inquiry."

2) Stick solely to (convenient) facts and add NO personal opinion, interpretation, or judgement. The court can only require facts from you and you do NOT have to answer "How do you explain .. ?" or "Why do you think .. happened?" question, except with a shallow ambiguous, "I cannot explain it," "That idea may/may not be possible," or "I cannot speculate on it." and lastly

3) Ignorance/bewilderment by saying, "I don't know," or "I don't understand," or "Your statement is confusing."

Edit: You are right that you are not on trial here, but testimony (even when it only leads to incriminating evidence) can change that, of course. The government expects you to provide factual evidence, even if it incriminates you, and you have the right not to remember, but the court expects the counsels to limit all exercise of your subpoena to revealing facts which are relevant to the prosecution of the defendent, even if it hurts you. Yield no false witness, and don't let it look like you are concealing anything either.

Answer 3

If you've already given them statements, then you really can't use the Fifth Amendment to protect you. Unless the things you would say on the stand could in some way incriminate you (e.g. cause you to be charged with a crime and be used against you as evidence), you can't exercise your right to not incriminate yourself. The government can't force you to provide testimony against yourself, but they can force you to testify.

Answer 4

Since you have made written statements, you will probably be made to state those same things in court.

Answer 5

So what you are saying is that you are guilty.