Entrapment (From Briefs of 100 Leading Cases in Law Enforcement, P 185-192, 1991, Rolando V. del Carmen, Jeffery T. Walker -- See NCJ-126275)

• NCJ Number: 126293
• Author(s): R V del Carmen; J T Walker
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Supreme Court decisions concerning entrapment are analyzed for their significance to law enforcement.

Abstract

In the case Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369 (1958), the Court found that there is entrapment when the government induces an individual to commit a crime which he or she otherwise would not have attempted. The act by a government agent of supplying one of the necessary ingredients for the manufacture of a prohibited drug does not constitute entrapment, according to the case United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423 (1973). The decision in Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484 (1976), stated that the entrapment defense applies only if the accused had no predisposition to commit the crime but was induced to do so by government agents. And, as stated in the case Mathews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58 (1988), the defendant is entitled to an entrapment instruction whenever there is sufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could find entrapment even if the defendant in a Federal criminal case denies one or more elements of the crime.