Criminal Law Commons^™

"Ready? Induce. Sting!": Arguing For The Government's Burden Of Proving Readiness In Entrapment Cases, David D. Tawil

Michigan Law Review

For over 100 years the United States judiciary has struggled with the sting and the entrapment defense, examining whether government agents deviously manufacture crimes or merely afford criminals the opportunity to commit them. The sentiments of Justice Holmes were rare for his time, but today they are reflected in a growing sympathy for sting victims. While courts are now more willing than ever to find entrapment, they still differ over the burden of proof that the government must satisfy to overthrow an entrapment defense. Specifically, courts disagree about whether the burden includes proof that the defendant had the ability and …

Investigatory Practices And The Changing Entrapment Defense, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Entrapment When The Spoken Word Is The Crime, James F. Ponsoldt, Stephen Marsh

Scholarly Works

The task of this Article is to assess the competing approaches that circuit courts have taken in defining the predisposition element in entrapment cases. It then attempts to try to reconcile them, not only with Jacobson v. United States, but also with policy concerns underlying the rest of the Supreme Court's entrapment jurisprudence, particularly in light of the increased politicization of federal criminal law through investigations of public officials' conduct by independent counsel. This Article will first frame the central issue, the supplementary mens rea requirement arising in entrapment cases. Part II then will review the common law development …

Sexual Misconduct And The Government: Time To Take A Stand , Andrea B. Daloia

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note analyzes law enforcement's use of one particularly troublesome tactic-the use of sexual acts or romantic promises to encourage a defendant to participate in illegal activities or to obtain information that can be used against the defendant at trial. The first part of this Note gives a brief history of the outrageous government conduct defense, including its distinction from entrapment, its origin and its lack of success in the courts. Although the entrapment defense and the outrageous conduct defense have some similarities, they are in fact quite different. The second section of this Note discusses the perception of sex …

Witch Doctors And Battleship Stalkers: The Edges Of Exculpation In Entrapment Cases, John F. Preis

Vanderbilt Law Review

The bumbling criminal has long been humorous to the law-abiding. Take, for example, a man recently intent on robbing a bank. The man entered a Bank of America bank, grabbed a deposit slip, and wrote on it "This iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag."' While waiting in line for a teller, he became worried that someone had seen him write the note and would inform the police. Thus, he exited the bank, walked across the street to the Wells Fargo bank, and gave the note to a teller. The teller, probably sensing his lack of dangerousness …

The Challenge Of Prosecuting Organized Crime In The United States: Procedural Issues, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ills Of The Federal Sentencing Guidelines And The Search For A Cure: Using Sentence Entrapment To Combat Governmental Manipulation Of Sentencing, Robert S. Johnson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Consider the following scenario:' The police conduct an under- cover sting operation targeting drug traffickers. An undercover officer approaches a suspected drug dealer and arranges to purchase crack cocaine. Over a period of five weeks, the suspect makes seven sales to the officer, and the police arrest him after the final sale. The total amount sold by the defendant was 50.4 grams, just enough to place him within the mandatory minimum sentence of ten years. Had he sold up to 49.9 grams, his mandatory minimum sentence would only have been five years. The district court hearing this case found it …

Presenting, Back From The [Almost] Dead, The Entrapment Defense, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Quiet Year: The Supreme Court's Criminal Law Decisions During The 1991 Term, William E. Hellerstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fall And Rise Of The Entrapment Defense, Paul Marcus

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

The Due Process Defense In Entrapment Cases, The Journey Back, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Toward An Expanded View Of The Due Process Claim In Entrapment Cases, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law - The "No I Didn't, And Yes I Did But...." Defense: Is The Entrapment Defense Available To Criminal Defendants Who Deny Doing The Crime? - Mathews V. United States, George Robert Hicks Iii

Campbell Law Review

This Note will explore the history of the entrapment defense. In addition, this Note will review previous federal court decisions regarding the inconsistency rule. The inconsistency rule refuses a criminal defendant the right to deny committing the charged acts and plead the entrapment defense. This Note will analyze both the majority and dissenting opinions of Mathews. The Note concludes by urging the North Carolina courts to follow the Mathews lead and change its stance with regard to the inconsistency rule.

Denying The Crime And Pleading Entrapment: Putting The Federal Law In Order, Richard C. Insalaco, Peter G. Fitzgerald

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The federal law of procedure in entrapment cases is in profound disarray. Despite four attempts over the past fifty years to clarify the law of pleadings in entrapment cases, the Supreme Court has yet to do so successfully. This Note focuses on these attempts, and analyzes the issue of whether to permit a defendant to plead entrapment while simultaneously denying the crime charged.

Part I reviews the historical development of the entrapment defense, the disagreement among the federal circuits with regard to alternative inconsistent defenses, and the arguments commentators have made for and against allowing alternative inconsistent defenses in entrapment …

Proving Entrapment Under The Predisposition Test, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Entrapment Law, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Entrapment Defense And Procedural Issues: Burden Of Proof, Questions Of Law And Fact, Inconsistent Defenses, Paul Marcus

Faculty Publications

Paul Marcus has produced an extremely thorough article on the intriguing and complex defense of entrapment. After analyzing the subjective and objective approaches to the defense, the author turns to the infrequently addressed question of evidence on predisposition. Included here are the recent ABSCAM cases.

Finally, the author explores the vagaries of inconsistent defenses and, on the whole, provides academics and practitioners with a refreshing and useful guide to some of the most important questions involving entrapment.

Pleading The Entrapment Defense: The Propriety Of Inconsistency, Michael H. Roffer

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Entrapment, Shocked Consciences, And The Staged Arrest, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article discusses the relatively spare and unsettled case law relating to the staged arrest, reflected primarily in United States v. Archer and Nigrone v. Murtagh. Part III of this Article examines the defense of entrapment, one of the most confusing and controversial legal doctrines, and its application to the staged arrest. Because the staged arrest ineluctably raises questions of offensive government conduct that neither constitutes unlawful entrapment nor invades any independent rights of citizens, part IV considers the analysis of courts that have invoked the due process clause to limit government investigations. In view of the failure of these …

Abscam, The Judiciary, And The Ethics Of Entrapment, Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this Article surveys the development of the competing threads of entrapment theory. Part II shows how these theories were applied in the Abscam prosecutions. Part III turns to the predisposition test and demonstrates its analytical flaws and its ineffectiveness in restraining he improper use of inducements in undercover investigations. Part IV offers specific suggestions for a federal entrapment statute to remedy these defects. The statute allows an entrapment defense where the undercover techniques used fall outside a narrowly defined range of permissible conduct. If the government's conduct is permissible, the statute nevertheless requires the decision-maker to examine …

The "Perjury Trap", Bennett L. Gershman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

It is the aim of the present Article, first, to explore the boundaries of legitimate grand jury interrogation as it bears on the subject of perjury and, second, to formulate guidelines that strike a balance between the needs of the investigatory process and the rights of witnesses.

Entrapment Versus Due Process: A Solution To The Problem Of The Criminal Conviction Obtained By Law Enforcement Misconduct , Peter O'Connor

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article contrasts the different approaches to dealing with entrapment: the due process rubric of the New York Court of Appeals and the predisposition framework set forth by the United States Supreme Court. The New York Court of Appeals reliance on government lawlessness rather than the Supreme Court's plurality focus on fourth and fifth amendment violations may cause less uncertainty and provide a better guidepost moving forward.

Elevation Of Entrapment To A Constitutional Defense, Robert H. Thomson Iii

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The issue of entrapment arises initially as a defense when a person is accused of committing a criminal act in which government agents solicited, and perhaps actively participated in, the conduct for which the defendant stands accused. Classic entrapment situations occur when law enforcement officers, through agents or informers, solicit an illegal transaction, such as the sale of contraband. The evidence thereby obtained is used to support the prosecution of the individual accepting the solicitation. Solicitation is an important technique of law enforcement because evidence of illegal transactions is often impossible to obtain by other methods. Certain uses of solicitation …

Criminal Law - Entrapment - Twenty-One Requests Of Defendant With Quick Access To Drugs Do Not Constitute Entrapment, Albert P. Massey Jr.

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, A. G. H.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

People V. Nunn [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

An osteopath's conviction for selling prescriptions for narcotics was proper because the regulatory code's use of the phrase "good faith" was not vague, and the prosecution's attempt to obtain narcotics from the osteopath was not entrapment.

People V. Malotte [Dissent], Jesse W. Carter

Jesse Carter Opinions

Where defendant discussed with police officers in a secretly taped conversation the commission of a crime, namely, provision of prostitutes, there was no unreasonable invasion of privacy when the conversation was used against her.

Criminal Law--Defenses--Entrapment, Trixy M. Peters

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crimes--Entrapment, Rawlings Ragland

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Entrapment In Narcotic Law Violations, J. Darwin Bond

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.