UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

MASON V. UNITED STATES, 244 U. S. 362 (1917)

244 U. S. 362

U.S. Supreme Court

Mason v. United States, 244 U.S. 362 (1917)

Mason v. United States

No. 604

Submitted April 11, 1917

Decided June 4, 1917

244 U.S. 362

Syllabus

The Fifth Amendment does not relieve a witness from answering merely on his own declaration or judgment that an answer might incriminate him; whether he must answer is determinable by the trial court in the exercise of its sound discretion, and unless there is reasonable ground, as distinct from a remote or speculative possibility, to apprehend that a direct answer may prove dangerous to the witness, his answer should be compelled.

In the absence of manifest error, the ruling of a trial judge upon a witness' objection that an answer may incriminate him will not be reversed by this Court.

Affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion. clubjuris

Page 244 U. S. 363


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