Opinion ID: 195222
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Outrageous Misconduct.

Text: 36 Appellant asserts that the prolonged series of undercover operations mounted by the postal inspectors constituted misconduct so fundamentally unfair as to violate the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. In terms, this assertion bears a family resemblance to appellant's assault on the failure of the judge and jury to find entrapment. It fares no better. 37 Government agents run awry of the due process clause if, and to the extent that, their investigative conduct violates fundamental fairness and is shocking to the universal sense of justice. United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 432, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 1643, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973). We recently stated that, in theory, the government's active participation in a criminal venture may be of so shocking a nature as to violate a defendant's right to due process, notwithstanding a defendant's predisposition to commit the crime. United States v. Panitz, 907 F.2d 1267, 1272 (1st Cir.1990) (citations omitted). Yet, we cautioned in virtually the same breath that this court had never encountered a situation where that sort of government involvement crossed the constitutional line. Id. The case before us does not break the string. 38 We do not see a need for exegetic comment. Despite the fact that undercover operations by their nature involve elements of furtiveness, duplicity, and manipulation, we have never held that such initiatives are per se unfair. To the contrary, we think that the Executive Branch is free, within broad limits, to set such snares for unwary criminals. See United States v. Santana, 6 F.3d 1, 5-6 (1st Cir.1993); United States v. Connell, 960 F.2d 191, 194, 196 (1st Cir.1992); see also United States v. Mitchell, 915 F.2d 521, 526 (9th Cir.1990) (upholding reverse sting operation in child pornography case), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 906, 111 S.Ct. 1686, 114 L.Ed.2d 81 (1991). In this connection, it is important to understand that the fairness of employing a particular form of undercover operation is in part a function of the crime under investigation. See United States v. Osborne, 935 F.2d 32, 37 (4th Cir.1991); see also Santana, 6 F.3d at 7 (outlining considerations relevant to assessing the outrageousness vel non of an undercover officer's conduct in a reverse sting operation). 39 We cannot say that, here, the postal inspectors lacked a rational basis for mounting a long-running series of undercover operations in an effort to curb unlawful trafficking in child pornography. 13 See Osborne, 935 F.2d at 37 (concluding that undercover operations provide a [lawful] means by which participants in the clandestine child pornography industry can be detected). And, moreover, fundamental fairness is not compromised in a child pornography case merely because the government supplies the contraband. See, e.g., Mitchell, 915 F.2d at 526; United States v. Musslyn, 865 F.2d 945, 947 (8th Cir.1989), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 443, 126 L.Ed.2d 376 (1993); United States v. Driscoll, 852 F.2d 84, 86 (3d Cir.1988); cf. Santana, 6 F.3d at 8 (holding that DEA's actions in supplying a large amount of heroin to suspected drug dealers did not warrant dismissal). 40 In this instance, the government's strategy seems fairly calculated to combat the spread of child pornography by putting consumers of forbidden depictions at warranted risk. The postal inspectors' communiques do not strike us as possessing the capacity to overbear a guileless recipient's will. They were, instead, neutral tests designed to assay a recipient's willingness to order contraband. In the same vein, the government's promotional literature, read as a whole, was not unfairly deceptive; although the Fetco brochure indicated on its face that the goods offered for sale did not contain child pornography, it was within the jury's province to conclude that appellant must have realized from the circular's contents that this was an apocryphal disclaimer. Nor does the temporal span of the government's undercover operation make it vulnerable to appellant's attack. Although the sting ultimately stretched over four years, appellant placed a mail order for illicit materials within a year after first being contacted by the postal inspectors. The government's decision to continue its investigation of appellant under such circumstances is far removed from outrageous conduct. See, e.g., Musslyn, 865 F.2d at 946 (upholding undercover sting operation that lasted nearly five years); United States v. Goodwin, 854 F.2d 33, 35-36 (4th Cir.1988) (similar; operation lasted nearly four years). 41 In a nutshell, nothing in this record distinguishes the government's actions in any material respect from the numerous sting operations that we, and other courts, have upheld in case after case after case. See Santana, 6 F.3d at 4 (collecting cases); United States v. Moore, 916 F.2d 1131, 1139 (6th Cir.1990); Panitz, 907 F.2d at 1272-73 (collecting cases); United States v. Thoma, 726 F.2d 1191, 1199 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1228, 104 S.Ct. 2683, 81 L.Ed.2d 878 (1984). There is no point in retracing footsteps that have beaten a well-marked path. The district court did not err in rejecting appellant's claim of outrageous governmental misconduct. 42