Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution enumerates several constitutional rights and limits governmental powers with respect to criminal procedure. It was ratified, along with nine other amendments, in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights.

The Supreme Court has extended most, but not all, rights of the Fifth Amendment to the state and local levels. This means that neither the federal, state, nor local governments may deny people most rights protected by the Fifth Amendment. The Court furthered most protections of this amendment through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

One provision of the Fifth Amendment requires that most felonies be tried only upon indictment by a grand jury, which the Court ruled does not apply to the state level. Another provision, the Double Jeopardy Clause, provides the right of defendants to be tried only once in federal court for the same offense. The Self-Incrimination clause provides various protections against self-incrimination, including the right of an individual not to serve as a witness in a criminal case in which he or she is a defendant. "Pleading the Fifth" is a colloquial term often used to invoke the Self-Incrimination Clause when witnesses decline to answer questions where the answers might incriminate them. In the 1966 landmark case Miranda v.