A. Refusing to testify against oneself (a right accorded by the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution).
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to pronunciation.Legal Definition -
Take the Fifth - To assert one's right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. Black's Law Dictionary® Eighth Edition © 2004
Recent Usage -
Taking the Fifth Amendment is everybody's right. But it's a choice that can send up a red flag, often invoked by people who have something to hide. Think of Enron's Andrew Fastow and Iran-Contra's Oliver North. So when Monica Goodling said last week that she would refuse to talk to Congress about the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, it was hard not to wonder what this 33-year-old party loyalist may have done wrong. Her pre-emptive move (Congress has yet to issue a subpoena) immediately raised questions, innuendo and gossip: Was she trying to avoid incriminating herself in a crime (and if so, what crime?), or, as her attorneys claimed, was she merely afraid that in the "perilous" partisan environment, even an innocent witness could end up in trouble? "Its value is grossly underestimated by nonlawyers," says Michele Roberts, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the same firm where Goodling's attorneys, John Dowd and Jeffrey King, work. (She says she has not discussed the case with them.) "There's a beauty in knowing 'I can't be prosecuted for something I didn't say'; there's some solace knowing 'they aren't going to hang me up to dry based on something I said that they thought was false.'" Read more... by T.R. Goldman and Emma Schwartz, Legal Times April 2, 2007