Entrapment Flashcards
Entrapment (General Rule)
Entrapment is the conception and planning of an offense by an officer, and his procurement of its commission by one who would not have perpetrated it but for the inducement of the officer.
Entrapment (Elements) (Subjective test) (Russell Test) (Majority Test)
- Did the government official originate the plan or criminal design?
- Did the government official instigate or induce the defendant to commit the crime?
- Did the government official induce an “otherwise innocent” person?
Types of Evidence to Consider whether D is an “otherwise innocent person” (entrapment) (Siraj Factors)
- Whether there is an existing course of criminal conduct similar to the crime for which D is charged
- Whether there is an already formed design on the part of the accused to commit crime for which he is charged
- A willingness to commit the crime for which he is charged as evidenced by the accused’s ready response to the inducement
* prosecutor allowed to use hearsay/reputation
Otherwise Innocent Person (rule)
An otherwise innocent person is someone who would not have committed the crime but for the government inducement.
Entrapment (Objective Test/MPC Approach) (Elements)
- Government originated plan or criminal design
- Government induced or instigated crime to an intolerable level
- Which would induce a normally law abiding citizen to commit the crime?
Sorrells Case (Entrapment) (Inducement)
Government agent asked multiple times for alcohol;
Pretended to be a fellow soldier
Sherman Case (Entrapment) (Inducement)
Gov. agent repeatedly asked for drugs;
Told D he was in pain and called upon D’s sympathy (shows inducement)
Sprouse Case (Entrapment) (Gov. Originate Plan)
Police created fictitious character “Ann” and initiated relationship w/ Defendant
Pharmacist Hypo (entrapment) (appeals based primarily on sympathy)
undercover agent came back repeatedly and begged for prescription drugs and said his wife was in so much pain and dying of cancer.
Bate Car Hypo (inordinate sums of money)
Police officer offered “inordinate sums of money” by offering the Mercedes Benz and the wallet w/ money sticking out.
Russell Case (D engaged in existing course of criminal conduct)
D admitted to making drugs prior
Agent testified he saw empty bottle of P2P at D’s house
Siraj Case (Already formed criminal design/ D was ready, willing, and able to commit crime)
D created plan to blow up subway station
D went and surveyed subway station on his own
D made statements he wanted to take revenge for America’s ill treatment of Muslims
Inducement by the government includes:
the use of trickery, fraud, deceit, soliciting, broaching, proposing, initiating, or suggesting the commission of the offense charged.
Factors to Consider Whether Government Action Rises to an INTOLERABLE LEVEL (Element 2- Obj. Test):
- Extreme pleas of desperate illness
- Appeals based primarily on sympathy
- Pity or close personal friendship
- Offers of inordinate sums of money
- Cajoling, importuning, badgering
- Providing an essential element of the commission of the offense in order to prosecute