The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution has many component statements about due process. It explicitly indicates about citizens not being required to do or say anything to incriminate themselves with the clause, "...[N]or shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of making it required for authorities questioning the accused to advise them of their rights. We know it as the Miranda warning or Miranda law.
Since rights are read to those accused, it has become a general mindset that to not immediately speak up to defend oneself is to appear to be guilty. That is absolutely a wrong mindset to have. At any time that any citizen is accused of anything it is one-hundred percent advisable to say nothing to those in an authority position other than giving proper identification and saying, "I will wait for my attorney to be present before I answer any questions." Over and over again almost every single day there are innocent people who bury themselves in legal quagmire by offering a statement without being asked for one or answering questions without having an attorney present.
In any situation where one is accused, whether it is for a minor offense or a serious crime, and may need the services of a DWI attorney or criminal lawyer, the truth of the matter is that whatever is said by the accused will be used against him or her in a court of law.
When the officer pulls a motorist over and asks the driver if he knew how fast he was going, many drivers immediately offer up an incriminating statement such as, "I don't know how fast I was going," or "I think I was only going one or two miles per hour over the speed limit." Both can be used in court. If the driver doesn't know how fast he was going he cannot state unequivocally that he was not speeding. If the driver was going a fraction of a mile per hour over the maximum posted speed limit, the law was broken.
Imagine saying something that could be misconstrued for a situation more serious than a minor traffic violation. At any time a person has to answer to legal authority, there is the stress of the actual incident and the stress of having to speak to those who have authority to arrest, cite and imprison. This is the best time to have a person who is an expert be there to defend against incriminating statements. The few dollars put out to have an attorney present during questioning has countless times saved citizens from fines, imprisonment or both.
All of us are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. However, the mindset of the authorities is to get the guilty to pay. One wrong word out of the mouths of even those who are absolutely innocent will get the authorities to focus their efforts on getting more. They will try harder to get more incriminating statements to come out of the mouth that offered up the interesting tidbit of information they are honing in on. So take advantage of that right to remain silent until help arrives.