You Have the Right to Remain Innocent

by James J. Duane

Memorize these two questions so you will not be tempted to answer any others: Who are you? What are you doing right here, right now?

Years ago, the Supreme Court held that you can be convicted and imprisoned for committing a crime even if you had no criminal intent and absolutely no knowledge that your conduct was forbidden by any law.

Because of laws like these and countless others, legal experts now agree that just about everybody in the nation, whether they know it or not, is guilty of numerous felonies for which they could be prosecuted. One reliable estimate is that the average American now commits approximately three felonies a day.

“most people have committed at least one crime carrying serious consequences,” including countless Americans who have no idea what law they have broken, or how they may have done so.27 That is why you cannot listen to your conscience when faced by a police officer and think, I have nothing to hide.

The Supreme Court justices are able to decide fewer than 1 percent of all the appeals that are presented to them to consider,

but the United States criminal justice system long ago lost any legitimate claim to the loyal cooperation of American citizens.

The next time some police officer or government agent asks you whether you would be willing to answer a few questions about where you have been and what you have been doing, you must respectfully but very firmly decline.

But the truth is that you cannot safely trust a single thing police officers say when they are trying to get you to answer their questions.

you need to proceed on the assumption that everything you think you know about the investigation is a lie,

As Mark Twain once famously quipped, the difference between the right word and the wrong word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

but in a world with more than seven billion people, just about anything can happen once in a while.

the Supreme Court made legal history when it held just three years ago that the silence of a criminal suspect in the presence of the police does in fact support the conclusion that he or she must have something to hide.

you must speak up and specifically tell the police about your desire to assert your constitutional rights.

the Department of Justice also helped persuade another federal court in another case that it should be lawful and permissible for a prosecutor to argue that anyone who explicitly asserts the right against self-incrimination is also admitting guilt.

The Department of Justice has now served official notice that it believes the courts should allow a prosecutor to argue under any circumstances that your willingness to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege can and should be used against you as evidence of your guilt.

Instead mention your Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer, and tell the police that you want a lawyer.

You need to say, with no adverbs, in only four words, “I want a lawyer.” And then you need to say it again, and again, until the police finally give up and realize they are dealing with someone who knows how our legal system really works.