- Talking to the police never helps. You can't talk your way out of trouble. Police are highly trained and can get you to admit to multiple crimes before they even ask you the question they wanted to ask. Police are trained in verbal judo. It is just like regular judo but with words. What you tell the police is admissible against you but what you tell the police in questioning is not admissible for you at trial. OCGA 24-8-801(d)(2)(A).
- If you are guilty - and even if you are innocent, you may admit to a crime with no benefit in return. More than 25% of the Innocence Project admitted to crimes despite being exonerated by DNA evidence.
- Even if you are innocent and deny guilt. If you misstate some fact, or tell some small lie either intentionally or by mistake, you can be charged and convicted of a felony. Just ask Martha Stewart.
- Even if you are innocent and only tell the truth, you may give the police some information that can be used to close their investigation and convict you. You don't know what piece of the puzzle is missing from the Police's investigation. They may not need you to admit you did, but just that you were near where the crime happened. One of the Fifth Amendment's basic functions is to protect innocent men who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances. Truthful responses of an innocent witness, as well as the wrongdoer, may provide the government incriminating evidence from the speaker's own mouth." Ohio v. Reiner, 532 US 17, 20 (2001). "Too many, even those who should be better advised, view this privilege as a shelter for wrongdoers. They too readily assume that those who invoke it are either guilty of a crime or commit perjury claiming the privilege." Ullman v. U.S., 350 US 422, 426 (1956).
- Even if you are innocent and only tell the truth and do not tell the police anything incriminating, there is still a grave chance that your answers can be used to convict you. The police don't recall your testimony with 100% accuracy or misinterpret your answers. Recall "I shot the clerk!" from My Cousin Vinny?
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- Even if you are innocent and only tell the truth, and do not tell the police anything incriminating, and the entire interview is videotaped, your answers can still be used to convict you if the police have any evidence, even mistaken or unreliable evidence that any of your statements are false.
- Martha Stewart - acquitted of financial crimes but convicted of lying to federal investigators.
- Marion Jones - said that she never used steroids instead of taking the 5th. She got 6 months in federal prison. Her drug dealer only got 4 months.
- Michael Vick - when he initially met with the police, he lied to them so his sentence was much longer.
- You never know what piece of the puzzle the police are missing, or which of the tens of thousands of laws they are trying to charge you with.