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Should you ever talk to the police to exonerate yourself?

Should you ever talk to the police to exonerate yourself? Professor James Duane explains why you should never talk to the police. Ever. Even if you are completely innocent.  Sounds like good advice to me.

It’s not just a clever defense lawyer tactic.  It’s a Constitutional right that has been upheld repeatedly by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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About the Author

Erich Vieth is an iconoclastic attorney, musician and writer living in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. He and his wife Anne Jay have two daughters, aged 9 and 11.

Comments (3)

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  1. Tony Coyle says:

    I watched the video. A very interesting take on a subject that I’ve never really thought much about (being largely [and boringly] law-abiding).

    I had always thought that ‘pleading the fifth’ would tend to incriminate me further (in the sense of - if you have nothing to hide…) but after listening tp Prof Duane’s lecture I’m convinced. But I would say one thing in addition to the pleading of the fifth… I’d mention the precedent of Prof Duane, and Justice Harvey(?).

  2. Erich Vieth says:

    Tony: I had the same reaction to this lecture. Even though I’m trained as a lawyer, I’m boringly well-behaved and my gut reaction is that if I were innocent, I’d be best to come forward to enlighten the police officers. This video will make me think thrice before opening my mouth, even if I were entirely innocent. He is right, that you can always make some sort of statement, when things settle down. Why rush it and risk that something would be misinterpreted?

  3. glinda says:

    Good advice if you’re innocent. I hope anyone guilty of a serious crime keeps right on blurting, though.

    I’ve had to talk to the police to give evidence against a pedophile, and I’ve never for one second regretted it. I stuck to what I knew to be fact. And it ended with him being stopped from raping his little girls any more (not by my testimony alone, of course; that would not have been appropriate).

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