The Right To Remain Silence When Charged By The Police
When effecting arrest, the policeman touches your person and tells you that you are under arrest.
The police is obliged to inform you of your offence. Depending on your conduct, the police can handcuff you or hold you in a manner that limits your strength and ability to escape and then escorts you to the police station.
At the station, you are formerly charged. Thus, you are told of your crime, the act you have engaged in and the offence, the law or statutes such act violates. You are then expected to give a statement to the police. The police would tell you of your right to remain silence. This is because anything you say would be written down and used against you as part of the evidence in court.
You are also told of your right to call in your lawyer. If you elect to call your lawyer, you should not give any statement until the lawyer arrives.
If you decide to forfeit the right to the services of your lawyer, and the option to remain silence, then you should give the statement in a language you understand.
If you give a statement in any language apart from English, it would be written down by the police investigator. Then it must be read over and interpreted to you by an independent person (different from the investigator taking your statement) to ensure that indeed what you said is what has been captured.
It is only after that has been done that you sign or make your mark. The interpreter also writes his name and make his mark. Note that the police cannot force you to give a statement. It is your decision to make.
The police cannot also force you to give a statement if you give an indication that you intend to be guided by your lawyer before making your statement. If you are capable of writing, you have the right to write the statement in your own handwriting.
Your lawyer would not write for you. It is either the police investigator or yourself.
If you gave the statement in any language apart from English, please insist that an independent person interprets it to you before you make your mark.
By Lawyer Yaw Mensah.
