[DOWNLOAD] "Commonwealth v. Sluss" by Virginia Court of Appeals # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Commonwealth v. Sluss
- Author : Virginia Court of Appeals
- Release Date : January 08, 1992
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 55 KB
Description
A sovereign may override a persons fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination and thereby compel the person to testify if the government grants to the person immunity that is coextensive with the scope of the constitutional privilege. Kastigar v. United States, 406 U.S. 441, 449 (1972). In order for the grant of immunity to be coextensive with the fifth amendment protection, the cloak of immunity must provide that the individuals compelled testimony may not be used directly or indirectly against him. Id. at 453. Federal prosecutors, with court approval, are authorized by statute to grant a witness immunity and thereby compel the witness to testify over his assertion of the fifth amendment privilege. See 18 U.S.C. 6002 et seq. Virginia, however, has no analogous statute by which prosecutors, even with judicial approval, may constitutionally compel a witness to testify. But see, e.g., Code 18.2-262, 18.2-437. We held in Gosling v. Commonwealth, 14 Va. App., S.E.2d (1992), that because Code 19.2-270 confers only use immunity, and does not confer derivative use immunity, the statute may not be invoked to override a persons assertion of the fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination.