If you are speaking in court...

United States
January 31, 2010 2:35am CST
If you are the main witness in court and you are asked to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" what happens if someone says no? And do people still swear on a bible? What if they don't believe in the bible?
2 responses
@hexeduser22 (7253)
• Philippines
31 Jan 10
I think if you say no then you'll be the one being put to jail for failure to cooperate. I don't know what they do with people with religion other than Christianity and does not believe in bible during swearing. I think we need a lawyer with experience to answer this one
@ainee82 (618)
• Philippines
31 Jan 10
I don't know about saying no because I don't think that has ever happened yet. I think people have already signed a sworn statement before coming into court. Aside from this there are different ways of inviting a witness to court. A court can send a subpoena to the supposed witness to come. Either way, if somebody actually says no, I think they will be held in contempt of the court. In the Philippines, we don't use the bible and you do not swear on the bible. Although we see this in Filipino movies, it's only because we copy the Western world so much. But in the US they do use the bible. And I think if the witness is Muslim, they will use the Quran for him or her to take the oath.