Cite as: 526 U. S. 314 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
whose cases are not dismissed enter pleas of guilty or nolo contendere. U. S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1996, p. 448 (24th ed. 1997). Were we to accept the Government's position, prosecutors could indict without specifying the quantity of drugs involved, obtain a guilty plea, and then put the defendant on the stand at sentencing to fill in the drug quantity. The result would be to enlist the defendant as an instrument in his or her own condemnation, undermining the long tradition and vital principle that criminal proceedings rely on accusations proved by the Government, not on inquisitions conducted to enhance its own prosecutorial power. Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U. S. 534, 541 (1961) ("[O]urs is an accusatorial and not an inquisitorial system").
We reject the position that either petitioner's guilty plea or her statements at the plea colloquy functioned as a waiver of her right to remain silent at sentencing.
B
The centerpiece of the Third Circuit's opinion is the idea that the entry of the guilty plea completes the incrimination of the defendant, thus extinguishing the privilege. Where a sentence has yet to be imposed, however, this Court has already rejected the proposition that " 'incrimination is complete once guilt has been adjudicated,' " Estelle v. Smith, 451 U. S. 454, 462 (1981), and we reject it again today. The Court of Appeals cited Wigmore on Evidence for the proposition that upon conviction " 'criminality ceases; and with criminality the privilege.' " 122 F. 3d, at 191 (citing 8 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2279, p. 481 (J. McNaughton rev. 1961)). The passage relied upon does not support the Third Circuit's narrow view of the privilege. The full passage is as follows: "Legal criminality consists in liability to the law's punishment. When that liability is removed, criminality ceases; and with the criminality the privilege." Ibid. It could be argued that liability for punishment continues until
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