Court Opinion

ID: 9448206
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 23:25:25.671322+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:19.358400
License: Public Domain

EDGERTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
A police informer induced appellant to sell him heroin. “That being so, the burden was on the Government, by way of reply to the defense of entrapment, to prove a sufficient excuse for the inducement.” United States v. Masciale, 2 Cir., 236 F.2d 601, 603. The reason for this rule seems clear. “The function of law enforcement * * * does not include the manufacturing of crime.”1 Ordinarily, government agents who induce crime are guilty of crime and the man they induce has the defense of entrapment. The Government must therefore prove extraordinary circumstances in order to convict.
Judge Learned Hand said: “two questions of fact arise: (1) did the agent induce the accused to commit the offence charged in the indictment; (2) if so, was the accused ready and willing without persuasion and was he awaiting any propitious opportunity to commit the offence. On the first question the accused has the burden; on the second the prosecution has it. * * * [S]ince the prosecution had the burden upon the issue of the excuse for inducement, it had to satisfy the jury that [the defendant] did not need any persuasion; but that he stood ready to procure heroin for anyone who asked for it.” United States v. Sherman, 2 Cir., 200 F.2d 880, 882-883. This court has said “reasonable suspicion” that a person is “engaging in such conduct” excuses inducement. Childs v. United States, 105 U.S.App.D.C. 342, 343, 267 F.2d 619, 620.
The Government’s brief rightly says appellant’s conviction rests upon the tes*182timony of a Metropolitan Police Officer. The officer testified that he gave the informer money to buy narcotics, that the informer said he would buy them from George Fletcher, and that the officer then saw the following events. The informer walked along and across a street to some steps where appellant and one Colbert were sitting. Appellant, Colbert, and the informer had a short conversation and crossed the street. After this, the informer gave Colbert money and Colbert gave it to appellant. Appellant gave to Colbert, and Colbert gave to the informer, a paper that contained narcotics.
I see no evidence, to say nothing of proof to the degree of certainty required by criminal law, either (1) that the appellant “did not need any persuasion” but “stood ready to procure heroin for anyone who asked for it”, or (2) that the informer who induced the appellant to commit the crime had a “reasonable suspicion” that he was “engaging in such conduct”. The Government did not call its informer as a witness. There was no evidence as to what the informer knew or suspected about appellant. There was no evidence that appellant had previously sold narcotics. There was no evidence that the informer did not put extraordinary pressure upon appellant by promises, threats, pleas of urgent need, or otherwise. There was no evidence that appellant acquiesced readily and did not protest that he was reluctantly yielding to pressure. In my opinion it follows that there was entrapment as a matter of law. Counsel duly raised the point.
The first three counts of the indictment were based on the sale, which occurred July 25, 1960. The sale enabled the police to get a warrant for appellant’s arrest and search his home on August 3. There they found the narcotics on which Counts 4 and 5 of the indictment are based. Appellant moved to suppress this evidence on the ground that the warrant resulted from the July 25 entrapment and was therefore illegal. The court ruled that there had been no entrapment and that the narcotics obtained on August 3 were, therefore, admissible in evidence. The conclusion fails if the premise fails. Entrapment to commit crime is not a legal way of acquiring evidence. It follows that a warrant resulting from evidence so acquired is invalid, search and seizure under the warrant are unreasonable, and the seized evidence must be excluded. This case is essentially like McGinnis v. United States, 1 Cir., 227 F.2d 598, 603, which held that “A federal agent cannot participate in an unlawful search, and then on the basis of what he observed in the course of that search, and on that basis alone, go to a United States Commissioner and swear out a search warrant. Such a search warrant, and the evidence procured in the course of a search thereunder, would be merely the illegal product of a previous unlawful search * * This ease is also essentially like Fraternal Order of Eagles, No. 778, Johnstown, Pa. v. United States, 3 Cir., 57 F.2d 93, where evidence obtained by use of a warrant was excluded because the information on which the warrant was based had been obtained by fraud. “The essence of a provision forbidding the acquisition of evidence in a certain way is that not merely evidence so acquired shall not be used before the Court but that it shall not be used at all.” Silverthorne Lumber Co., Inc. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 392, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319. The “fruit of the poisonous tree” is not acceptable evidence. Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 84 L.Ed. 307. The public interest in discouraging entrapment to commit crime would be poorly served if only the first fruit of entrapment were excluded.
The court found appellant guilty as. charged and imposed concurrent sentences of ten years on all counts. In my opinion his conviction on all counts, should be reversed.