N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:84A-17

Privilege of accused

Known as the The Evidence Act

The act spans §§ 2–2 (78 sections).

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Trammel v. United States (1980)

Most recently applied in State v. Gutierrez (August 2019)

L.1960, c.52, s.17; amended 1992, c.142, s.1; 2006, c.103, s.90.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Privilege of accused.

(1) Every person has in any criminal action in which he is an accused a right not to be called as a witness and not to testify.

(2) The spouse or one partner in a civil union couple of the accused in a criminal action shall not testify in such action except to prove the fact of marriage or civil union unless (a) such spouse or partner consents, or (b) the accused is charged with an offense against the spouse or partner, a child of the accused or of the spouse or partner, or a child to whom the accused or the spouse or partner stands in the place of a parent, or (c) such spouse or partner is the complainant.

(3) An accused in a criminal action has no privilege to refuse when ordered by the judge, to submit his body to examination or to do any act in the presence of the judge or the trier of the fact, except to refuse to testify.

Current official text: New Jersey Legislature. Digitized from the New Jersey Legislature bulk statutes download. Reproduced from public-domain New Jersey statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.