“The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” U.S. Const. amend. V.” <em>United States v. Von Behren</em>, 822 F.3d 1139, 1144 (10th Cir. 2016). "It has long been held that this prohibition not only permits a person to refuse to testify against himself at a criminal trial in which he is a defendant, but also 'privileges him not to answer official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal proceedings.'" <em>Minnesota v. Murphy</em>, 465 U.S. 420, 426 (1984) (quoting <em>Lefkowitz v. Turley</em>, 414 U.S. 70, 77 (1973)).
The Founding Fathers, the framers of the Constitution, wanted to form a government that did not allow one person to have too much authority or control. While under the rule of the British king they learned that this could be a bad system.
