comes from the Constitution's 5th Amendment which protects all people innocent or guilty from self-incriminalization. Basically, it simply means the "suspect" has a right to remain silent and has a right to have a lawyer present before he or she answers any questions. Over the years the law on this subject has moved more toward relaxing the "right to remain silent" such as applying it only when the suspect is in custody-actual arrest-not free to leave, etc. There are thousands of people today in jail because they felt it harmless to tell their stories even in the wake of being given their rights. It is also for this reason that it is very uncommon at a criminal trial for a defense lawyer to put his client on the stand. OJ would likely have been convicted had he taken the stand to testify. The prosecution has the burden to prove the case-as it should be. If not there would be thousands of people serving time and even on death row for crimes they did not commit. As it is we already have too many in those circumstances. Bottom line is there are plenty of dirty cops, dirty detectives, and dirty prosecutors who for whatever reasons do not care about putting an innocent person in jail. So the reading of your rights protect both the innocent and guilty as does the burden of proof being on the prosecution.
