Notes on Self-Incrimination

The Law required two or more witnesses to a crime. A person admitting to a crime would be insufficient gain a conviction.

• Deuteronomy 17:6 "On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness."
• Deuteronomy 19:15 "A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed."

Witnesses to a crime involving the death penalty had to be the first to cast stones at the criminal. That logically rules out being a witness against yourself.

• Deuteronomy 17:7 "The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."

Example

Mark 14:53-64

• Jesus, who did no sin, declined to testify in a court case against him. It was the prosecutor's duty to prove a case against him, which they failed to do.
• Only when the High Priest pressured him under oath to answer whether he was the Christ did Jesus answer as the law required (Leviticus 5:1). To not answer would have been to deny who he was.

John 18:21 "Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said."

• Jesus points out that trying to trap a defendant with his own words in a court trial is not proper. The appropriate thing is to prove the case using multiple witnesses.

Arguments for Self-Incrimination Answered

• Leviticus 5:1 "Now if a person sins after he hears a public adjuration to testify when he is a witness, whether he has seen or otherwise known, if he does not tell it, then he will bear his guilt."
  • This is a witness to another person's crime, not his own. If he is told to testify in court, then not saying what he knows is helping the criminal in his crime.
  • Notice that it isn't required that the witness volunteer to state what he knows before being adjured in court.
• I Kings 8:31-32 "If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and act and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness."
  • This is a case against the defendant, and in court is forced to answer under oath.
  • This doesn't require a person to voluntarily turn himself in before being placed under oath in a court.
• Joshua 7:19-25
  • God already identified Achan. Joshua gave him a chance to admit his fault before executing his punishment.
  • Achan did not turn himself in prior.