Okay, but if you know that if you both keep quiet, you walk, then why would your buddy talk?

No, if you both keep quiet, you both get a short sentence. So if your buddy doesn't talk and you do, then you walk. So even in that case, you're better off talking.

I always thought that if you both keep quiet, you'll do a minimal sentence. You only go free if you squeal on the other guy (who then does 10 years or whatever).

I am, it seems, exceedingly naive and not cut out for a life of crime and thuggery.

it's OK. I wouldn't talk either. Maybe we can share a cell after our accomplices rat us out.

I always thought that if you both keep quiet, you'll do a minimal sentence. You only go free if you squeal on the other guy (who then does 10 years or whatever).

Yeah, that's the way I've always heard it. Plus in Tom's quote (from wikipedia?) above, that's the way it is too.

Lawyer up and don't say nothing.

What erika said, Tep. The cops'll tell him you talked and tell you he talked, with props and whatnot to be convincing.

Yeah, I gotta say, my answer is totally different if Frank Pembleton is in the box with me.

On Wikipedia it says if you talk and your buddy doesn't, you go free and he gets ten years. If neither of you talk, you both get six months. And if you both talk you each get five years.

Nobody likes a tattletale.

I spit upon Macy's.

I haven't shopped at Macy's since they bought Rich's and put on the Macy's name. The Marshall Fields thing just made me madder. When I get mad, I stay mad. I haven't bought gas from Exxon since the Exxon Valdez spill.

You guys know how to carry it. How West Baltimore of y'all. Of course that's also why somebody got a big laugh on The Wire for saying "If terrorists attacked the Western District, could anybody tell?"ETA: Usually "Your buddy told us everything," is a big lie. Not as big as "We just want to hear *your side*, though. They never want to hear your side.