Court Opinion

ID: 9463770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:15:57.08807+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:16.726166
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in Judge Moore’s discerning opinion. While Ordner met his burden of proving inducement, the evidence was sufficient to meet the Government’s burden of proving predisposition beyond a reasonable doubt. See United States v. Rosner, 485 F.2d 1213, 1221-22 (2d Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 950, 94 S.Ct. 3080, 41 L.Ed.2d 672 (1974); United States v. Weiser, 428 F.2d 932, 934-35 (2d Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 949, 91 S.Ct. 1606, 29 L.Ed.2d 119 (1971). United States v. Riley, 363 F.2d 955, 957-58 (2d Cir. 1966); United States v. Sherman, 200 F.2d 880, 882-83 (2d Cir. 1952) (L. Hand, J.). As I have said, “there is no magic formula” for evaluating “predisposition.” United States v. Ortiz, 496 F.2d 705, 708 (2d Cir. 1974) (dissenting opin*31ion). But the elaborate pretense involved in this case, however clever in conception and successful in operation, see also United States v. Michaelson, 552 F.2d 472, 475-476 (2d Cir. 1977), is unquestionably borderline conduct on the part of a government that has a duty not to “create crime for the sole purpose of . . . punishing it,” Butts v. United States, 273 F. 35, 38 (8th Cir. 1921), quoted in Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 444, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932) (Hughes, C. J.).