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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 03 2012 @ 03:05 PM EDT |
were the jurors made aware of some advice like this. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, October 03 2012 @ 05:34 PM EDT |
I have sometimes mused that, if I were ever in a situation to be put under oath,
I might decline to take the oath (as it is usually stated, "the whole
truth") on the grounds that the court would not permit me to tell the WHOLE
truth, and--thus--by taking the oath I would almost certainly be put in a
position of being coerced by the court into breaking it....and I hold my
personal word higher than that.
Still...I have no idea what would happen in a court in a court if someone simply
refused to either swear or affirm such an oath. (e.g. Q:"Do you swear or
affirm....?" A:"No")
On the face of it, it would appear that an oath really can't be compelled, since
if it is administered under duress, it really couldn't be binding...
In any case, if the court were so foolish as to include a "...so help you
God" clause, I would decline on First Amendment grounds (Establishment
Clause).
Perhaps someone with legal training can enlighten me.
--W. H. Heydt[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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