John Young, you get the 5th too.... Mar 19, 2001 - 11:49 AM Court Says Innocent Can Refuse to Testify By Anne Gearan Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - "Taking the Fifth" is an option open to the innocent as well as the guilty, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The unanimous decision stems from the conviction of an Ohio man in the "shaken baby" death of his infant son. The Supreme Court affirmed the right of the family baby sitter to claim Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination even if prosecutors did not accuse her of wrongdoing. Matthew Reiner claimed the baby sitter harmed 10-week-old Alex in 1995, but Toledo prosecutors instead focused on him and planned to call the baby sitter to testify against him. They did not intend to prosecute Susan Batt, but she nevertheless refused to testify unless given a promise of immunity. Otherwise, she would exercise her Fifth Amendment right not to testify, she told prosecutors. When she testified, Batt denied ever harming Alex or his twin brother, who suffered broken bones. Reiner was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to probation. The Ohio Supreme Court ultimately threw out the conviction on grounds that Batt's protected testimony unfairly undermined Reiner's defense. Ohio prosecutors appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a short, unsigned opinion Monday without hearing oral arguments. "That tells us it was so clear the Ohio Supreme Court was wrong in its analysis of the facts and the law," Toledo prosecutor J. Christopher Anderson said. Monday's decision apparently reinstates Reiner's conviction, Anderson said. Even if Batt had nothing to do with Alex's death, she had a reasonable fear that testifying "might tend to incriminate her," the justices wrote. "Batt spent extended periods of time alone with Alex and his brother in the weeks immediately preceding discovery of their injuries. She was with Alex within the potential timeframe of the fatal trauma," the justices wrote. Hence, Batt was free to assert her Fifth Amendment rights, the justices said. Previous Supreme Court decisions set a precedent that the Fifth Amendment "protects the innocent as well as the guilty," the court said. The case is Ohio v. Reiner, 00-1028.