716
Breyer, J., dissenting
tice and Office of Procurator General of the Republic of Lithuania Concerning Cooperation in the Pursuit of War Criminals, Aug. 3, 1992, App. in No. 96-6144 (CA2), p. 395. As the Second Circuit reasoned, since the Federal Government now has a stake in many foreign prosecutions akin to its stake in state prosecutions, a stake illustrated by this case, the privilege's purpose of preventing governmental over-reaching is served by recognizing the privilege in the former class of cases, just as it is served in the cases of "cooperative federalism" identified by Murphy. Indeed, experience suggests that the possibility of governmental abuses in cases like this one—where the United States has an admittedly keen interest in the later, foreign prosecution—is not totally speculative. See, e. g., Demjanjuk v. Petrovsky, 10 F. 3d 338 (CA6 1993).
An additional purpose served by the privilege is "our preference for an accusatorial rather than an inquisitorial system of criminal justice." Murphy, supra, at 55. Even if this systemic value speaks to "domestic arrangements" only, ante, at 690, the investigation of crime is as much a part of our "system" of criminal justice as is any later criminal prosecution. Reflecting this fact, the Court has said that the Fifth Amendment affords individuals protection during the investigation, as well as the trial, of a crime. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436 (1966). And the importance we place in our system of criminal investigation, and the distaste we have for its alternatives, would stand diminished if an accused were denied the Fifth Amendment's protections because the criminal case against him, though built in this country by our Government, was ultimately to be prosecuted in another. This is true regardless of whether the "Bill of Rights was intended to have any effect on the conduct of foreign proceedings." Ante, at 701 (Stevens, J., concurring). The Fifth Amendment undeniably "prescribes a rule of conduct generally to be followed by our Nation's official-
Page: Index Previous 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007