Opinion ID: 334674
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Martin's Appeal

Text: 2 1. Entrapment. In support of his claim of entrapment as a matter of law, Martin relies on evidence tending to show that he initially refused to become involved with Government Agent Beverly, and that he finally agreed to procure the cocaine only after several calls from the agent. He also places great weight on his own testimony at trial that Beverly introduced himself to Martin as a police officer and asked Martin to cooperate with the police in apprehending drug dealers that lived in Martin's apartment complex. This testimony was not uncontradicted, however. Agent Beverly testified that he was introduced to Martin as a musician who was interested in buying some cocaine, and that it was Martin who initiated some of the telephone calls that preceded the deal. With this evidence in the record, the district court instructed the jury on the entrapment issue. In our opinion, this was correct. Entrapment exists only when the government has implanted the criminal design in the mind of the defendant; the central issue of predisposition is a fact question for the jury. United States v. Kirk, 5 Cir. 1976, 528 F.2d 1057. Viewing the evidence most favorably to the Government, Glasser v. United States, 1964, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680, we cannot say that the jury's rejection of the defense rested on insufficient evidence. 3 2. Prosecutor's Argument. In his closing argument, the prosecutor made the following statement, which forms the basis of Martin's complaint: 4 Mr. Massey (defense counsel) tells you that he based his defense on the report that is in evidence, this particular laboratory report. Mr. Massey knows full well that he was provided with all the detailed case reports, and he knows whose names are on the case reports. 5 Martin's attorney objected to this comment, but his objection was overruled. On appeal, Martin argues that this comment impermissibly shifted the burden of proof to the defendant and that it erroneously accused the defense attorney of misleading the jury. Because the jury's decision was essentially a credibility choice between Martin and Agent Beverly, Martin argues that the court's overruling of his objection was prejudicial error. 1 The Government responds to this point by noting that the jury already knew about the existence of the detailed case reports through Agent Beverly's testimony on redirect. Beverly had described the DEA-7 report, the general report that named only Martin, and had contrasted it to the DEA-6 report, the detailed description of actually what happened, when it happened, how it happened, with whom it happened with (sic) and where the incident happened. (Tr. at 67.) The import of the prosecutor's statement is that at some time after Beverly left the stand and before the closing arguments the defense attorney received copies of the detailed DEA-6 reports. We do not understand the defense to deny this fact. Thus, the Government was seeking only to refute the defense's assertion in its closing jury argument that the only reports that were known to it were silent as to Coppins' association with the drugs. The prosecutor's remarks were a fair response to the defense counsel's statement, and as such were not impermissibly prejudicial. See United States v. Milne, 5 Cir. 1974, 498 F.2d 329; United States v. Yaughn, 5 Cir. 1974, 493 F.2d 441. We therefore find no reason to reverse on this ground.