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If you've watched the news in the past several weeks, you've undoubtedly heard this famous amendment discussed in reference to the Enron scandal. Several of the company's former executives pleaded "the Fifth" when questioned by Congress about the shady accounting practices that led to the largest bankruptcy in American history. Why did these executives invoke the amendment, and what protection does it give them? We first headed to Yahoo!'s Constitution of the United States category, where we found a few sites that offered the full text of Amendment
V. But we wanted to learn what the amendment means and how it's used, so we headed to the always informative Straight Dope site. There we uncovered a fairly lucid explanation about the importance of the Fifth Amendment. The key words in the amendment are: "nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself." This basically means you don't have to incriminate yourself, and you can't be forced to testify at your own criminal trial. When you "plead the Fifth," the prosecuting attorney is not allowed to suggest to the jury that your lack of testimony implies your guilt. However, members of the jury may come to that conclusion on their own. In addition,
if you are testifying in someone else's trial and feel that you might incriminate yourself in the process, you can avoid answering questions by "pleading the Fifth." Avoiding self-incrimination is the main reason people invoke the Fifth Amendment, but there is another reason it's used: it also includes the double-jeopardy provision. This basically means you cannot be put on trial twice for the same crime, even if more evidence comes to light.
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