Court Opinion

ID: 9462184
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:33:56.964603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:26.703090
License: Public Domain

WALLACE, Circuit Judge
(specially concurring in part and dissenting in part):
As to Demma, I concur only with that part of the majority opinion which deals with the facts before us. He admitted committing the underlying acts necessary to the conspiracy. He properly contends that, in arguing entrapment, he need not also have to admit an intent to carry out the conspiracy. With this I agree and, therefore, his case must be reversed. But I decline to take the succeeding journey of rewriting entrapment law which is not iii issue. Even in an en banc case, wisdom dictates deciding only the case before us.
The duty of this court, as of every judicial tribunal, is limited to determining rights of persons or of property which are actually controverted in the particular case before it. . [T]he court is not empowered to decide moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare, for the government of future cases, principles or rules of law which cannot affect the result as to the thing in issue in the case before it.
California v. San Pablo & Tulare R.R. Co., 149 U.S. 308, 314, 13 S.Ct. 876, 878, 37 L.Ed. 747 (1893).
Similarly, I find no facts in the case raising an issue addressed by footnote 2 and the textual language at page 984, ante. Indeed it seems inconsistent with the requirement that the government agents “implant in the mind of an innocent person the disposition to commit the alleged offense and induce its commission . . . .” Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 442, 53 S.Ct. 210, 212, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932). “It is only when the Government’s deception actual*988ly implants the criminal design in the mind of the defendant that the defense of entrapment comes into play.” United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 436, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 1645, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973).
Further, I specifically disassociate myself from the language in footnote 1, ante, p. 983, which suggests an analogy between entrapment and the exclusionary rule. Although the majority notés the rule is a minority viewpoint, it fails to state that the majority of the Supreme Court has specifically rejected the analogy. United States v. Russell, supra, 411 U.S. at 430-31, 93 S.Ct. 1637.
Neither can I agree with the statement of the majority that “[t]he primary function of entrapment is to safeguard the integrity of the law enforcement and prosecution process.” Ante, p. 985. While this is one function of entrapment, it is constrained by a limiting principle: specifically that the defendant must not be predisposed to commit the crime. To neglect this limiting principle is, again, to approach the position of the minority, not the majority, of the Supreme Court. Compare Justice Rehnquist’s majority opinion in United States v. Russell, supra, 411 U.S. at 429-30, 432-36, 93 S.Ct. 1637, with the dissenting opinions of Justices Douglas and Stewart, at 436—45, 93 S.Ct. 1637.
I am also persuaded that the majority establishes too imprecise a standard when it states that “evidence suggesting entrapment” is sufficient to raise the question. Ante, p. 984. I would substitute “permitting a reasonable doubt” for “suggesting.”
Finally, I have concluded that Brulay should not receive the benefit of Dem-ma’s request for the entrapment instruction. Brulay failed to request such an instruction. United States v. Scott, 425 F.2d 55 (9th Cir. 1970) (en banc), relied on by the majority, is distinguishable. There we held that Leary v. United States, 395 U.S. 6, 89 S.Ct. 1532, 23 L.Ed.2d 57 (1969), was retroactive and applied to Scott. At the time of trial, Leary had not been decided and Scott was confronted with a “solid wall of circuit court authority, including our own, sustaining the presumption [held unconstitutional in Leary] against constitutional attack.” 425 F.2d at 57. Here, there was no such “solid wall” of authority. On the contrary, as the majority points out, the prior Ninth Circuit decisions are inconsistent with the decisions of the Supreme Court and “confused and conflicting” among themselves. Ante, p. 982. Furthermore, at least Scott raised the question on appeal. Here, Brulay did not raise the question until asked to do so by the order taking the case en banc.
Moreover, in Scott we decided the retroactivity question properly since Leary was decided on constitutional grounds and all previous non-objecting defendants could obtain the same relief as Scott by a motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Here, the retroactivity question remains undecided and section 2255 relief is problematical since our decision in this case is not on constitutional grounds. See Davis v. United States, 411 U.S. 233, 239, 93 S.Ct. 1577, 36 L.Ed.2d 216 (1973) (dictum). The result is that Brulay receives the benefit of a special 'retroactivity rule applicable only to himself among all non-objecting defendants. Such an arbitrary result does not seem wise to me. I would affirm as to Brulay.
EUGENE A. WRIGHT and TRASK, Circuit Judges, concur in this specially concurring and dissenting opinion.