Very, VERY true, with only one small caveat: There is a case of where a suspect was fully cooperating with the investigation until the questioning began to narrow down to the specifics of the case and the suspect then refused to answer any more questions. At trial his sudden change from being cooperative to being non-cooperative was brought up and allowed to stand. So... if ya gonna talk, talk, but don't suddenly change from being talkative to refusing to talk just when the questions start to get 'interesting'.
Best course of action (as determined by the Court) absolutely, positively, refuse to talk to the police, even in a non-custodial, Tier 1, 'we're all just friends here' encounter.' See Salinas v Texas.
Oh, man. I hate being reminded of that case--it just burns me up. However, it is actually a very important part of the discussion, so it has to be said.
Remember also, the court's rationale included that Salinas did not expressly invoke his right to silence. So, not only do you have to remain silent, you have to expressly invoke the right in order to not have your silence used against you in court:
Petitioner's Fifth Amendment claim fails because he did not expressly invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the officer's question. It has long been settled that the privilege "generally is not self-executing" and that a witness who desires its protection "`must claim it.'"
Salinas v Texas.
Separately, the reason this opinion burns me up is because of the self-serving lie it perpetuates: why the right is not self-executing. This is one of most expensive rights in our history. A lot of people paid dearly to get it for us. The only reason it is not self-executing is because
government refused to recognize it as such. Government fought tooth-and-nail against the right to silence, finally yielding only just as much as they thought they had to in order to avoid riots. Nothing but government itself prevented it being self-executing then (16th and 17th century England), and nothing but government prevents it from being self-executing today. Keep that in mind whenever somebody tells you "its a fighting right"; its a fighting right--not self-executing--because
government did not and will not fully recognize the right.
