Twining v. State of New Jersey - An Inference Of Guilt, State Citizens, American Citizens, Further Readings

Appellants

Albert C. Twining, David C. Cornell

Appellee

State of New Jersey

Appellants' Claim

That New Jersey's Court of Errors & Appeals erred in upholding a conviction obtained in a trial during which the appellants' Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process under the law were violated.

Chief Lawyers for Appellants

James Johnson, William Gooch, Herbert Smyth, Frederick Scofield (for Twining), Marshall Van Winkle (for Cornell)

Chief Lawyers for Appellee

H.M. Nevious, Robert McCarter

Justices for the Court

David Josiah Brewer, William Rufus Day, Melville Weston Fuller, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph McKenna, William Henry Moody (writing for the Court), Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting

John Marshall Harlan I

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

9 November 1908

Decision

In favor of appellee, affirming the sentences of the appellants.

Significance

The 1908 Court's narrow interpretations of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments in the Twining decision limited the right of individuals to remain silent in courtroom proceedings to avoid self-incrimination.

Related Cases

• Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873).
• Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46 (1947).
• Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1 (1964).