Court Opinion

ID: 9571949
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:36:38.900949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:14.032536
License: Public Domain

Utter, J.
(dissenting) — An ordinary citizen, never having sold marijuana in his life, is approached by the distraught wife of a man slowly dying and in great pain. After repeated requests for marijuana to ease the dying man's pain, the citizen gives in and provides the drug. Miraculously, the dying man transforms himself into a policeman, as the frog became a prince, and announces the citizen's arrest and placement in the same criminal class as those felons who daily deal drugs to young schoolchildren.
While this may or may not be what actually happened in the present case, it is the story petitioner George Smith sought to present, and was prevented from fully presenting, to the jury. By holding that the corroborative evidence sought by Mr. Smith was immaterial the majority approves the scenario just set forth. I cannot countenance, and our prior decisions do not require, such a result.
*46I
Initially, it is important to define the standard of review we should apply. The majority concedes that the hearing judge erred in conducting a materiality hearing without defense counsel present. The majority further concedes, at least by implication, that this error would necessitate reversal if Mr. Smith's entrapment defense were not insufficient as a matter of law. The test here is thus identical to that applied to failure to give an entrapment instruction, i.e., whether a jury might reasonably have found entrapment from the proffered evidence (State v. Lambert, 148 Wash. 657, 659, 269 P. 848 (1928)). In making this determination, we must resolve all conflicts in the evidence in favor of Mr. Smith. See, e.g., State v. Morgan, 9 Wn. App. 757, 759-60, 515 P.2d 829 (1973) (deciding need for entrapment instruction by assuming truth of defendant's testimony). The credibility of his testimony is not for us to decide.
II
The defense of entrapment requires proof of two elements.
(a) The criminal design originated in the mind of law enforcement officials, or any person acting under their direction, and
(b) The actor was lured or induced to commit a crime which the actor had not otherwise intended to commit.
RCW 9A.16.070(1). The two elements of entrapment may otherwise be referred to as "inducement" and "predisposition". See, e.g., Park, The Entrapment Controversy, 60 Minn. L. Rev. 163, 176 (1976).
The majority apparently concedes that petitioner produced sufficient evidence to raise a jury question as to the "predisposition" element. It asserts, however, that, as a matter of law, appeals to sympathy, the only evidence offered by petitioner, can never be sufficient to prove "inducement". This broad assertion is supported by neither logic nor precedent.
Initially, it should be noted that the statute speaks only *47of an actor who is "lured or induced". RCW 9A.16.070. On its face, this suggests that any inducement, perhaps even a mere request, is sufficient to prove this element of entrapment. Indeed, there is weighty authority in other jurisdictions taking precisely this position. Park, at 179-80 and authorities cited therein; see, e.g., United States v. Sherman, 200 F.2d 880, 883 (2d Cir. 1952) (Hand, J.). This makes the entrapment defense only slightly easier to prove, for a defendant must still show an absence of predisposition. Park, at 180-81.
Despite this authority, the courts in this state have taken what I believe to be the better approach and required that the inducement go beyond "a normal amount of persuasion" (State v. Waggoner, 80 Wn.2d 7, 11, 490 P.2d 1308 (1971)) and be such as can be said to constitute "undue solicitation" (State v. Swain, 10 Wn. App. 885, 889, 520 P.2d 950 (1974)). A defendant need not allege totally outrageous conduct, however. State v. Keller, 30 Wn. App. 644, 647, 637 P.2d 985 (1981).
Whether a particular inducement may be said to constitute undue solicitation must be judged on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, mere repeated badgering and begging has been held sufficient to raise a jury question. See, e.g., State v. Keller, supra at 648-49; State v. Morgan, supra at 759-60. At the very least, inducement which might convince an otherwise innocent person to commit a crime should be considered sufficient. See Model Penal Code § 2.10(1) (b) (Tent. Draft No. 9, 1958) (even stricter inducement test requires showing of "methods of persuasion or inducement which create a substantial risk that such an offense will be committed by persons other than those who are ready to commit it"); Park, at 181 n.53. See generally Donnelly, Judicial Control of Informants, Spies, Stool Pigeons, and Agent Provocateurs, 60 Yale L.J. 1091, 1113 (1951) (purpose of entrapment defense is "to discriminate between the situational and the chronic offender").
Contrary to the majority's assertion, appeals to sympathy may constitute undue solicitation. See, e.g., Sherman v. *48United States, 356 U.S. 369, 373, 2 L. Ed. 2d 848, 78 S. Ct. 819 (1958). As with other forms of inducement, the focus must be on whether the appeal to sympathy went beyond a normal amount of persuasion. See, e.g., State v. Gray, 69 Wn.2d 432, 434-35, 418 P.2d 725 (1966) (informer's appeal to sympathy in form of claim that no one else would sell him marijuana insufficient inducement). State v. Swain, supra, cited by the majority, is not to the contrary. In that case, the trial court did consider the defendant's entrapment defense and simply concluded, as trier of fact, that the defendant had not carried his burden of proof. See Swain, at 892-93. Swain is simply consistent with the well settled rule that the factual issue of entrapment should generally be decided by the jury. C. Whitebread, Criminal Procedure 566 (1980).
Here also the trier of fact should have been allowed to fully consider Mr. Smith's version of events. Mr. Smith's testimony, if believed and if supported by the informer's testimony, establishes facts not dissimilar from those in Sherman v. United States, supra. In that case, an informer complained of his suffering due to withdrawal from heroin and repeatedly requested the defendant, who was also being treated for addiction, to obtain narcotics for him. Sherman, at 371. When the defendant finally agreed and several times obtained drugs for the informer, he was charged with sales of narcotics. The Supreme Court found entrapment as a matter of law. Sherman, at 373.
In the present case, Mr. Smith also testified to several requests by the informer, which he initially refused, that he provide her with marijuana. He also testified as to repeated statements by the informer that her husband was dying and in great pain. Mr. Smith sought access to the informer so that she could corroborate this testimony. While the undercover officer purporting to be the informer's husband claimed he later explained to Mr. Smith that he was not dying, but only ill, he said nothing to indicate that he was not in pain. Moreover, Mr. Smith denied that the officer ever made any explanation at all.
*49If the facts in Sherman showed inducement as a matter of law, this testimony surely raises inducement as a question of fact for the jury. The story which Mr. Smith claims he was told is precisely the sort of inducement which might tempt an otherwise innocent person to violate the law. Mr. Smith's entrapment defense therefore did not fail as a matter of law and the trial court's failure to allow defense counsel to question the informer in camera cannot be said on this record to be harmless.
Ill
I would not dispose of this case, however, by immediately ordering a new trial. Whether or not Mr. Smith's Sixth Amendment right to compel testimony was violated depends on whether the informer's testimony would actually have been helpful to the defense. See, e.g., Ashley v. Wainwright, 639 F.2d 258, 261 (5th Cir. 1981). Because of the hearing court's error, the record before us gives little indication of what the informer would testify to. I would therefore remand this case for an evidentiary hearing at which defense counsel should be allowed to question the informer directly. If evidence is adduced at the hearing which would be beneficial to the defense (see Ashley v. Wainwright, supra at 261), a new trial should be ordered and the informer could be subpoenaed to testify. If, on the other hand, no beneficial evidence is adduced at the hearing, a new trial is unnecessary and Mr. Smith's conviction should be affirmed.
I dissent.
Williams, C.J., and Pearson, J., concur with Utter, J.
Reconsideration denied May 1, 1984.