Raffel v. United States

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that Fifth Amendment “immunity from giving testimony is one which the defendant may waive by offering himself as a witness”
• holding that where the defendant “takes the stand in his own behalf, he does so as any other witness, and within the limits of the appropriate rules he may be cross-examined as to the facts in issue”
• holding that defendant who invoked right to remain silent at first trial, but who elected to testify at second trial, could be impeached on cross-examination by silence in first proceeding
• holding that asking about the defendant’s prior silence was proper
• stating a defendant waives the right to remain silent by testifying in his own defense and becomes subject to cross-examination like any other witness
• stating a testifying defendant’s “failure to deny or explain evidence of incriminating circumstances of which he may have knowledge, may be the basis of adverse inference”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).