Why take the fifth elsewise otherwise if you are innocent? If you are innocent you can answer ALL QUESTIONS honestly based on what actually happened. If you are guilty you dare not take that chance so you plead the 5th.
It's an ironic thing that. Taking it admits guilt and you are safe because taking the fifth is license to put you prison. It's a ruse to keep you out. But you took it so guilty though you are NO punishment accrues to thee. GET OUT OF JAIL REE card. How many times can you take? In how many different crimes can you use it to a** your a**? Puzzling to me.
Ohio vs Reiner is the case law that made it possible. A baby died due to shaken baby syndrome. The babysitter was questioned and she said she was innocent but pleaded the fifth. Cops told her they she had no right to plead the fifth because according to her she was innocent and therefore she had no way to incriminate herself and they just wanted to ask her questions about the baby the last time she saw him. Supreme Court ruled that she did have a right to the 5th because if she admitted that she saw the baby before it died, although innocent, in lack of a suspect and based on other evidence it can give the cops motive, opportunity and could be used to procedure her and thus she had a right to plead the fifth.
So in that case, if she said she had the baby before it died, how would she prove that she did not shake him causing shaken baby syndrome a few hours later?? The prosecution could prove it was her to the jury (in error) based on circumstantial evidence. Say the person that shook him had hands as big as hers, but no one saw her around the baby. Or simply because she was with the baby, they baby had forensic evidence such as fibers, hair, dna, etc… what if she broke up with her boy friend and someone saw her crying before the bang died. What if she had too much coffee and looked hyper fidgety and paranoid and people may assume that she was in speed and carelessly man handled the baby ??
Just by her saying she saw the baby hours before it died, all of the above become possible and she could be arrested for simply telling them she saw the baby! If she simply pleads the fifth and she did, then the cops have no reason to arrest her and would be forced to look harder for the real killer, which ended up being a guy named Reiner.
my2cents 