FL Supreme Court OKs stricter sentences if defendants exercise right against self-incrimination

[SteveRogers]

https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1466442103513305093

This seems blatantly unconstitutional.

Well your headline is a little misleading. The defendant in that case chose to testify at their sentencing (thus NOT invoking their 5th Amendment right against testimony) and maintained that the jury got it wrong and they were innocent. The Court held that it was not improper to consider lack of remorse in the defendant’s freely given statements as a factor in sentencing.

[SteveRogers]

So much for due process.

This would run counter to the purpose of the 5th amendment. Why should there be any difference in how you should sentence somebody based on that? No person, even if complicit, would want to be convicted of a crime. The American legal system, in my view, is designed for people to be seen innocent before proven guilty. This would infer the opposite. This is a dubious decision with wide reaching effects.

This case was about the Defendant’s conduct after he had already been proven guilty.