Court Opinion

ID: 9847947
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:10:22.993631+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:49.588454
License: Public Domain

UHLENHOPP, Justice
(concurring specially) .
I am unable to concur in divisions II, III, and IV of the court’s opinion.
Involved here is the meaning of “entrapment”. This court approved the following statement, in reference to entrapment under narcotic drug laws, in State v. Heeron, 208 Iowa 1151, 1154, 226 N.W. 30, 31:
“[N]o man should be convicted of the violation of such laws, where he had no criminal intent to violate the same, but is induced to become a law violator by reason of the arts and wiles of public officials to depart from the path of being a law abiding citizen into the commission of crime. When the criminal design originates not with the accused, but is conceived in the mind of the state or government officials, and the accused is by persuasion, deceitful representation or inducement lured into the commission of a criminal act, the state is estopped from prosecuting therefor and a defendant should not be convicted under such circumstances. . . . The test is, did the criminal design originate in the mind of the accused, or was such design originated in the mind of the entrapping officer, who lured the defendant into the commission of a crime in order to secure his conviction therefor.”
See also State v. Davis, 175 N.W.2d 407 (Iowa); State v. Fagan, 190 N.W.2d 800 (Iowa); State v. McGranahan, 206 N.W.2d 88 (Iowa).
As the statement from State v. Heeron makes clear, entrapment cases involve this issue: did the criminal design originate in the mind of the accused or in the mind of an officer who lured the accused into the commission of crime? This issue, in turn, raises the following question: what constitutes evidence of whether the accused had a criminal design or the officer induced him to commit the crime? The commonest evidence is proof of other sales within a reasonable period of time or of stocks of illicit drugs.
Let us say that a youth named Smith tells the police that in the past two months he bought LSD on four occasions from John Jones, twice at a certain bar and twice at Jones’ apartment, where Jones lived alone and had the pills in a white *384box. The next evening an undercover agent goes to the bar in question, sees Jones, and buys two LSD pills from him, using marked money. Officers then arrest Jones. They search him and find the marked money but no more pills. A chemist tests the pills that Jones sold the agent and finds them to be LSD. ■ The following day, while Jones is still in jail but with the permission of him and his attorney, the officers search Jones’ locked apartment and find the white box. It contains 21 tablets of pentobarbital, 87 tablets of LSD, 132 tablets of amphetamines, and 26.3 grams of marijuana, plus $800 in cash (see State v. Dandridge, 213 N.W.2d 903 (Iowa)).
The prosecutor charges Jones with selling LSD to the agent. The prosecutor has the evidence and on trial Jones admits the sale. But Jones testifies that the agent said he felt very low, greatly needed a lift, and talked Jones into selling him the two LSD pills. The agent testifies he made no such statements.
The prosecutor then contends that whether or not the agent made the disputed statements, Jones was not really entrapped — he already had the criminal design and would have made the sale anyway. As proof, the prosecutor puts Smith on the stand in rebuttal to testify firsthand to his four purchases of LSD from Jones. The prosecutor also puts the officers on the stand to testify to the discovery of the white box and its contents, which the prosecutor offers into evidence.
In my opinion, this rebuttal evidence should be received. Otherwise, courtroom realities are not taken into consideration and the jury hears only half of the entrapment matter. The accused is allowed to masquerade before the jury as a mere possessor of a couple LSD pills and to leave the jury with the impression that he would not have sold them but for the agent’s statements. The prosecutor is not allowed to counter that impression by showing that the accused made other sales and possessed a stock of drugs. The jury is thus kept from seeing the entire picture.
The thought seems to exist that the rule admitting such evidence also necessarily admits surmise, rumor, and other hearsay. Comment, 59 Iowa L.Rev. 655, 660. I do not see why this is so. I think the State should be restricted to solid, relevant proof.
I agree that rebuttal evidence of the kind I have illustrated is not admissible under the regular exceptions to the rule disallowing proof of other crimes — motive, intent, absence of mistake or accident, a common scheme, or identity of offender. Rather, such rebuttal evidence is admitted under the test, “[D]id the criminal design originate in the mind of the accused, or was such design originated in the mind of the entrapping officer?” State v. Heeron, supra. As stated in Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 451, 53 S.Ct. 210, 216, 77 L.Ed. 413, 422, “[I]f the defendant seeks acquittal by reason of entrapment he cannot complain of an appropriate and searching inquiry into his own conduct and predisposition as bearing upon that issue.”
I have been able to find very few decisions supporting this court’s present position. Most courts hold the opposite. Among the cases which consider the question in some detail are Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848; United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 36 L.Ed.2d 366; United States v. Granger, 475 F.2d 1022 (9 Cir.); United States v. Cooper, 321 F.2d 456 (6 Cir.); Demos v. United States, 205 F.2d 596 (5 Cir.) ; State v. Whitney, 157 Conn. 133, 249 A.2d 238; Commonwealth v. Miller, 282 N.E.2d 394 (Mass.) ; State v. Van Regenmorter, 465 S.W.2d 613 (Mo.); State v. Dolce, 41 N.J. 422, 197 A.2d 185; People v. Calvano, 30 N.Y.2d 199, 331 N.Y.S.2d 430, 282 N.E.2d 322; State v. Schultz, 27 Utah 2d 391, 496 P.2d 893; Flawthorne v. State, 43 Wis.2d 82, 168 N.W.2d 85.
*385I concur in divisions I and V of the court’s opinion and in reversal of the judgment, but I dissent from divisions II, III, and IV.
MOORE, C. J., and REES and HARRIS, JJ., join this special concurrence.