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4 unusual facts about Fifth Amendment


Fifth Amendment

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, which protects against the abuse of government authority in legal proceedings

Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa, which made technical changes relating to the election of the National Assembly and the structure of the Financial and Fiscal Commission

Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, a referendum related to the Roman Catholic Church and other religious denominations

The Fifth Witness

Haller's case hinges on the testimony of a witness whom he manoeuvres into taking the Fifth Amendment on the witness stand, thus creating a plausible alternate killer for the jury (making him both the fifth witness in sequence and the "Fifth" witness).


Article Two of the United States Constitution

Tyler's precedent made it possible for Vice Presidents Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson to ascend to the presidency (Gerald Ford took office after the passage of the Twenty-fifth Amendment).

Big Jim McLain

Police arrive to place party leaders under arrest, but ultimately he and Nancy Vallon see them plead the Fifth Amendment and go free.

Edwin G. Corr

Corr gave voluntary interviews to the Independent Counsel in 1991 before ending his cooperation and invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Eslanda Goode Robeson

Asked if she was a communist, she took the Fifth Amendment and challenged the legitimacy of the proceedings.

Irving Peress

He also upbraided his questioners by saying that anyone, even a senator, who equated the invoking of the Fifth Amendment with guilt was himself guilty of subversion.

Dr. Peress invoked the Fifth Amendment dozens of times in his testimony, also stating that he had and would continue to oppose any group that sought a violent or unconstitutional overthrow of the U.S. government.

When he filled out a subsequent, more detailed questionnaire, Peress invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to queries about membership in the Communist party or affiliated organizations.

Lloyd Gough

Married to the actress Karen Morley, both were brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee and when they invoked the Fifth Amendment they were blacklisted, effectively terminating their careers in Hollywood until the late 1960s.

Stephen Flemmi

To many questions about the murders Flemmi was involved in, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

Wendell H. Furry

In 1953, he was subpoenaed several times as a suspected communist by the House Unamerican Activities Committee and by US Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege in refusing to answer questions about his past membership in the Communist Party.


see also

Lesser included offense

In the United States, even if any of the states were to eliminate the merger doctrine, a conviction for both an offense and any of its lesser-included offenses, not tried in the same case, might be found to be prohibited by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299 (1932).

Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Upon assuming the role of White House Chief of Staff in 1987, Howard Baker was advised by his predecessor's staff to be prepared for a possible invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment due to Reagan's perceived laziness and ineptitude.