Floyd Leroy Laughlin v. United States

In the Court below the appellant was convicted of the crime of rape and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, from which he appealed to this Court, and the case was on that appeal affirmed in Laughlin v. United States, 1966, 368 F. 2d 558 .

Following that appeal, appellant (petitioner and movant below) filed a § 2255 motion, and from its denial he now prosecutes his present appeal in which he contends that at his jury trial on the merits the Court committed the following alleged errors:

First, appellant contends his Fifth Amendment right not to be a witness against himself was violated by the FBI agent’s testimony at the trial that appellant remained silent when previously accused of sexually assaulting the victim, but appellant’s experienced and able attorney did not see fit to object to that evidence and thereby waived the presently claimed error of its admission into evidence (Trial Tr. 129; Tr. 65). Osborne v. United States, 9 Cir., 1967, 371 F.2d 913 . The more recent case of Fowle v. United States, 410 F.2d 48 , decided by this Court on April 14, 1969, has been considered by us, but believing that on its facts it is materially different from this case, we do not apply the…