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The Right To Silence As Protecting Mental Control, Dov Fox

Akron Law Review

This Article examines the idea that individuals have a moral and constitutional right of control over the use of their thoughts vis-à-vis the state. As a point of departure, I consider the prospect of a forensic neuroimaging device that was capable of eliciting recall and recognition from a criminal suspect without the suspect’s having even to answer an interrogator’s question. Reflection on government access to this sort of interrogation technique suggests that the state should be prohibited from either extracting a person’s thoughts without her consent or making use of her compelled thoughts to lay criminal blame upon her. Though …