NCJ Number
92746
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 52 Issue: 12 Dated: (December 1983) Pages: 17-24
Date Published
1983
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Appellate and Supreme Court rulings seem to limit availability of the entrapment defense to persons who have been induced by Government officers or their agents.
Abstract
Entrapment is an affirmative defense which the defendant must raise and in which the defendant must produce evidence that the Government initiated, suggested, or proposed the crime. Moreover, the defendant must produce evidence that he was not predisposed to commit it. Numerous court cases have established the inadmissibility of the entrapment defense when entrapment resulted from the inducements of a private citizen. Moreover, when middlemen (private, unwitting individuals used by the Government to further an undercover operation) are involved in inducement, the entrapment defense is also not available. Although the Supreme Court has never addressed the problem, various Federal and State appellate courts have found that inducement through a middleman is impossible when the middleman is not induced and even when the middleman is induced (transmitted inducement). Finally, inducement created by a middleman and offered to a third party without the knowledge, participation, or consent of a Government agent should not permit an entrapment claim by the third party. A total of 35 footnotes are provided.