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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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For instance, it's not at all obvious to me as a layperson why accepting a pardon would or should invalidate someone's right against self-incrimination; as I understand it, accepting a pardon is not an admission of guilt, and a person may have perfectly reasonable opposition to testifying as to their factual guilt. If a pardon doesn't stop a pardoned murderer from being compelled to state under oath and before the whole community that they murdered their housekeeper, or something, well... seems like it's a blessing with a curse.

Well, let's look at the actual language of the Fifth Amendment:

No person... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself

The underlying thrust of this, especially when read together with the rest of the amendment, is that the constitution offers protections against prosecution. Not embarrassment, not reputational harm, not even civil liability. Once a pardon is issued, the pardoned individual can't be a witness against himself in a criminal case because there can be no criminal case. Look at what happened with Bill Cosby; the prosecutor dropped a weak criminal case to allow the alleged victim the opportunity to pursue a civil suit. By entering into a non-prosecution agreement, the alleged victim could now depose Cosby and he couldn't invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege because nothing he said could incriminate him. (Ignore the fact that the trial court misapplied the law and he ended up serving prison time for these statements; the clarification from the appellate court upholds the principle.)