Court Opinion

ID: 9550137
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:30:15.305414+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:44.344476
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent, and would adhere to the former decision. It is my opinion that the defendant has had his entitlement: a fair trial to the jury under adequate instructions. Under our statute Sec. 76-1^14 U.C.A.19S3 which maltes anyone who aids or abets in the commission of a crime guilty as a principal, he could be found guilty if if he wilfully and intentionally assisted as a buyer, or as a seller, of narcotic drugs, and whether or not he was acting as an agent of the police officer. The only real basis of defense is entrapment. The question whether the defendant became an agent of the officer cannot be other than an aspect of the defense of entrapment. The trial judge correctly perceived this and instructed the jury that the defendant would not be guilty if the idea to commit the crime did not originate in his own mind but was suggested for the purpose of entrapping him, and that he could be found .guilty only if he “originally 'and independently of the officers” formed the intention and committed the offense.
I would therefore affirm the conviction.
ELLETT, J., concurs in the dissenting opinion of CROCKETT, J.