Can a subject's silence be used in trial as an indication of his guilt?

Written By: Reid
Feb 10, 2015
Earlier this year an article entitled, Silence Is No Longer Golden: How Lawyers Now Advise Suspects in Light of Salinas v. Texas, was published in The Champion (a publication from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers). In this article the authors describe the US Supreme Court decision in Salinas v. Texas as follows: "In a 5-4 decision, Salinas held that a witness, whom police subject to a noncustodial questioning without Miranda warning, cannot rely on the Fifth Amendment unless he expressly invokes it. That is, if a witness remains silent in the face of such questioning, the prosecution can, at trail, introduce his silence as substantive evidence of his guilt. And further, the police do not have to inform the witness in advance of his right against self-incrimination."

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Click here to access the US Supreme Court Salinas decision