Ex Parte Bowers

By allowing the harmless error rule, which is promulgated for the efficient administration of justice, to take precedence over the fifth amendment under the facts in this case, the majority has today taken an unnecessary and unjustifiable step onto the slippery slope of government intrusion into our fives. U.S. Const. amend. V provides: “[N]or shall any person ... be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself....” After relator claimed this privilege, the trial court ordered him to the stand to be sworn and to testify. In so doing, the trial court contradicted a tenet of…