united-states criminal-law jury trial
Can a witness pleading the 5th be used as evidence?
<p>In the Derek Chauvin trial, Morries Hall, a key witness for the prosecution has plead the 5th because he worries his testimony could result in charges against himself.</p>
<p>My question is, is the jury allowed to consider that plea as evidence Chauvin is innocent?  The logic being &quot;It doesn't make sense for Hall to plead the 5th if Chauvin killed Floyd?  The only thing he could be hiding is his own involvement in Floyd's death.&quot;</p>
<p>Obviously they can't use his plea as evidence in his own trial, but he's not the one on trial now.</p>

<p>The jury should draw <em>correct</em> conclusions from what they hear in court. If they draw <em>incorrect</em> conclusions, I don't think that would be illegal, but it would mean that justice might not be done.</p>
<p>If a juror says &quot;It doesn't make sense for Hall to plead the 5th if Chauvin killed Floyd? The only thing he could be hiding is his own involvement in Floyd's death.&quot; that would be an incorrect conclusion. There are many other things that Hall might not want to be known, for example involvement in drug dealing.</p>
<p>There are also many witnesses who didn't see Hall anywhere near Floyd. Even if the conclusion is right, for example if Hall supplied Floyd with drugs, Hall might have thought that this is &quot;involvement in Floyd's death&quot;, but that would just be his opinion, and wouldn't change anything about Chauvin's guilt.</p>
<p>So drawing the conclusion that Chauvin must be innocent would be totally unjustified. But there is no law against the jury making innocent mistakes.</p>

<p>Part of Chauvin's defense seems to be that Floyd died from drug-related complications during the use of force in his arrest. The prosecution says that Chauvin's inappropriate use of force caused the death.</p>
<ul>
<li>From the news reports, both Hall and Floyd had some drug history. Hall might be refusing to implicate himself in <strong>some other</strong> drug-related crime by his testimony. Notably, the defense seems to want to ask if Hall supplied Floyd with drugs.</li>
<li>Even if Floyd was under drugs, that does not mean Chauvin's use of force was appropriate.</li>
</ul>
<p>What I conclude from Hall pleading the Fifth is that Hall knows something about how Floyd got his drugs, but then that there were drugs in Floyd's system is no big surprise at this stage and I cannot see how the source of the drugs affects Chauvin's guilt or innocence either way.</p>
