State v. Raithel

The single question before the Court is whether a trial court’s use of an accused’s silence at a prior suppression hearing to impeach his credibility when the defendant subsequently testifies at a second suppression hearing is permissible.

On July 5,1974, a female patron was found stabbed outside a restroom in a restaurant in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Although the actual stabbing was unwitnessed, the defendant Thomas Leonard Raithel became the prime suspect based on circumstantial evidence. At the request of the police, the defendant, accompanied by his father, visited the police…