Case Name: Tony KEMP, Ray S. Collins, Houston Collins and Jeffrey J. Curtis v. STATE of Mississippi
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1988-01-06
Citations: 518 So. 2d 656
Docket Number: No. 57141
Parties: Tony KEMP, Ray S. Collins, Houston Collins and Jeffrey J. Curtis v. STATE of Mississippi.
Judges: ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., DAN M. LEE, P.J., and PRATHER,
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 518
Pages: 656–661

Head Matter:
Tony KEMP, Ray S. Collins, Houston Collins and Jeffrey J. Curtis v. STATE of Mississippi.
No. 57141.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Jan. 6, 1988.
Carroll Rhodes, Hazlehurst, for appellants.
Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Charles W. Maris, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., and Kay B. Cobb, Jackson, for appellee.

Opinion:
SULLIVAN, Justice,
for the Court:
The appellants were convicted by the Circuit Court of Copiah County, Mississippi, of conspiracy to possess more than one (1) kilogram of marijuana with intent to distribute. Each appellant was fined $20,-000.00 and sentenced to a term of six (6) years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Each appeals assigning as one of their errors that the trial court should have granted their motion for a directed verdict and for a peremptory instruction at the end of the State's case.
We reverse and discharge the appellants on the authority of Barnes v. State, 493 So.2d 313 (Miss.1986).
The facts in this case present the classic reverse sting operation carried on by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics in June of 1983 against Barnes. The same agents using the same vehicles carried out the exact same reverse sting in May of 1983 against the appellants here.
We repeat for the edification of narcotics officers throughout the State of Mississippi that the rule in Mississippi as laid out in Barnes, supra, is that a reverse sale or a reverse undercover operation as termed by the officers in that case and in this case embraces all the elements and require ments for the definition of entrapment. Entrapment in this case was established as a matter of law by the State's own proof and the defense is valid against a charge of conspiracy to possess marijuana. See Barnes v. State, 493 So.2d 313, 316 (Miss.1986).
REVERSED AND APPELLANTS DISCHARGED.
ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., DAN M. LEE, P.J., and PRATHER,
ROBERTSON, and ZUCCARO, JJ., concur.
HAWKINS, P.J., and GRIFFIN and ANDERSON, JJ., dissent.