Court Opinion

ID: 9467465
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:49:27.683631+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:21.582937
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
If I interpret the majority opinion correctly, the majority holds that the trial judge properly ruled, in light of United States v. Johnston, 426 F.2d 112 (7th Cir. 1970), that an entrapment instruction was unavailable because the defendant did not admit that he in fact committed the offense of obstruction of justice. The majority, then taking an inconsistent position, rules that there was no evidence of entrapment; therefore, an instruction on the issue was really unnecessary.
The trial judge, in contrast to the majority’s ruling, viewed the evidence as sufficient to present a jury question on entrapment and only because the defendant did not admit his commission of the offense was the instruction not given. This is quite evident from the judge’s ruling during the trial:
With regard to the instructions on entrapment, the Court has indicated to the defense that the Court will give an instruction on entrapment provided that the defendant, as indicated in U. S. v. Johnston, cited at 426 F.2d 112, will admit, or make an admission to the offense stated in Count III.
The record amply substantiates the trial judge’s appraisal of that statement.
I
Cornel Leahu was superintendent of the East Chicago, Indiana, Sanitary District at the time the defendant was mayor of the city. Leahu received a seven-year sentence in connection with his role in the “kickback” scandal involving the East Chicago Water Pollution Abatement Project. The Government’s background evidence in the defendant’s trial was submitted in an effort to show that some of the money intended for the general contractor on the project and realized from the sale of city bonds came into the hands of city officials, including the defendant.
Shortly after entering a federal prison, Leahu contacted an IRS special agent and indicated his willingness to cooperate in the continuing investigation of the scandal with the hope that his sentence would be reduced. As a result of this contact, IRS agents and Department of Justice personnel arranged to have Leahu get in touch with the defendant, while wearing a concealed recording device. Two conversations took place between Leahu and the defendant. Both contained ostensibly inculpatory statements on the part of the defendant. At trial the defendant testified that the recordings were accurate; however, he denied that his statements were susceptible of the sinister interpretation which the Government gave them.
*977An FBI agent testified that one of the purposes of tape recording the initial conversation was to obtain evidence of obstruction of justice. Before contacting the defendant, an IBS agent asked Leahu if he would be willing to record a conversation with Nicosia. Leahu responded by inquiring whether if he did so it would constitute cooperation; the agent answered that it would be noted. Later Government prosecutors told Leahu that what he was doing would be regarded as cooperation. At about this time, Leahu told Carl DeCicco, a fellow inmate in the federal prison, that he was hoping to get probation or a transfer to a minimum security prison for his cooperation.
In summary, the record lends itself to a plausible defense theory that Government law enforcement agents and officials attempted to obtain evidence, through the taped conversations, of a crime for which the defendant only tangentially was under investigation. Nicosia was induced to talk to Leahu, after the latter had been instructed by the prosecutors to lie to the defendant about his cooperation with the Government. At the very least, this evidence was sufficient to raise the issue of entrapment. Although the burden is on a defendant to present some evidence of entrapment, the quantum to make it a jury question needs only be slight. The Ninth Circuit stated the prevailing view in Notaro v. United States, 363 F.2d 169, 174 (9th Cir.1966):
[I]t seems quite clear that when it can be said that the issue of entrapment has fairly arisen, whether by testimony given during the presentation of the prosecution’s case in chief or by testimony offered in defense, the defendant has met whatever “burden” rests upon him.
See also United States v. Riley, 363 F.2d 955, 959 (2d Cir.1966). The district judge’s appraisal was correct; there was sufficient evidence to constitute an issue of entrapment.
II
After referring to the trial judge’s refusal to instruct the jury on entrapment for the stated reason that the defendant did not admit the charge and then observing that the judge’s ruling was based on United States v. Johnston, supra, the majority mentions United States v. Demma, 523 F.2d 981 (9th Cir.1975), where the Ninth Circuit reversed a prior ruling of that court, similar to the Johnston requirement. According to the majority here, “Most certainly the ruling in Demma, as well as a similar rule in at least four other circuits, tempts a reconsideration of Johnston by the Court en banc.” But then illogically and incorrectly, in my judgment, the majority says that this is not the case for such reconsideration.
In Johnston the defendant interposed a defense of entrapment. The Government sought to show that the defendant was predisposed to commit crimes and that police acted reasonably in providing him an opportunity to commit the offense with which he was charged. In disposing of the issue, this court, without discussion, announced the rule challenged in the instant case:
There is divergence of opinion among the Circuits. ... In the District of Columbia Circuit, as Hansford [303 F.2d 219] supra, indicates, one may deny commission of the act and still plead entrapment into committing it. In this Circuit, United States v. Roviaro, 7th Cir.1967, 379 F.2d 911, and cases there cited; United States v. Carter, 7th Cir.1963, 326 F.2d 351, absent admission of the act an instruction on entrapment will not be submitted to the jury.
United States v. Johnston, supra, 426 F.2d at 114. United States v. Roviaro, 379 F.2d 911, 914, cited in Johnston, stated the rule in equally cryptic terms:
Defendant also urges that [a government informer] entrapped defendant. However, defendant admitted no criminal acts. In such a situation, it has been held that a defendant may not use the entrapment defense. Ortega v. United States, 348 F.2d 874, 876 (9th Cir.1965); but cf. Hansford v. United States, 303 F.2d 219, 221 (9th Cir.1962).
*978It is significant that this court in Roviaro cited for its sole support Ortega v. United States, 348 F.2d 874 (9th Cir.1965). The significance lies in the fact that the Ortega decision, which followed an earlier Ninth Circuit case, Eastman v. United States, 212 F.2d 320 (9th Cir.1954), was disapproved by the Demma en banc court. The Ninth Circuit in the latter case made its position clear: “We overrule Eastman v. United States (9th Cir.1954) 212 F.2d 302, ... and disapprove all authority in our circuit that relies on Eastman and its progeny.” Demma, supra, 523 F.2d at 982.
It seems appropriate to quote Judge Hufstedler’s opinion in Demma at some length for it expounds by unassailable reasoning why the Johnston rule in this circuit should be overruled:
The rule that a defendant wishing to claim entrapment must concede the crime charged was first announced in this circuit in Eastman v. United States, supra. The theory behind the rule is that it is factually inconsistent for a defendant to deny the crime charged, and, at the same time, to claim entrapment.
The Eastman rule must be rejected for several reasons. First, in some of its applications, including the one by the district court in the case at bar, the rule conflicts with prevailing Supreme Court authority. [Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932).] Second, in other of its applications the rule has become detached from its theoretical moorings and cannot be justified by the inconsistency theory. Third, the inconsistency theory itself is seriously infirm.
The theory of the Sorrells approach to entrapment is that the acts necessary to constitute any federal crime must be non-entrapped acts; non-entrapment is an essential element of every federal crime which is put in issue whenever evidence is introduced suggesting that an unpredisposed defendant was induced by the Government to commit the acts charged. In Sorrells, Chief Justice Hughes expressly rejected the Government’s contention that a claim of entrapment necessarily involved an admission of guilt and that it was in the nature of a plea in bar.
“This, as we have seen, is a misconception. The defense is available, not in the view that the accused though guilty may go free, but that the government cannot be permitted to contend that he is guilty of a crime where the government officials are the instigators of his conduct.” (287 U.S. at 452, 53 S.Ct. at 216.)
As the district judge in the case at bar realized, the Eastman rule, by its terms, requires that a defendant wishing to claim entrapment concede the state of mind necessary to constitute the crime charged as well as the constituent acts. However, the requirement that the defendant concede a state of mind is in direct conflict with the Sorrells conception of entrapment. Under Sorrells, whenever the element of non-entrapment is put in issue the Government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the acts charged were non-entrapped acts. The Government bears this burden whether or not the crime charged involves a subjective, mental element and whether or not the defendant concedes any mental element involved. The Eastman rule relieves the Government of this burden whenever the crime charged involves a mental element which the defendant refuses to concede. Relieving the Government of the burden of proving that the necessary acts were non-entrapped conflicts fundamentally with the Sorrells conception of entrapment.
Sorrells recognized that the special and perverse evil of entrapment is that the Government induces an otherwise innocent person to commit certain acts and then attempts to punish him for those very acts. If the Government, in addition to inducing acts, induces scienter, then the evil has been multiplied. But whether or not the Government succeeds in *979inducing or even tries to induce scienter, the primary, basic evil is that the Government has instigated the very activity which causes an otherwise innocent person to suffer a criminal sanction.
Demma, supra, 523 F.2d at 982-84 (footnotes omitted). It is also important to note that the District of Columbia Circuit, en banc, in a unanimous decision in Hansford v. United States, 303 F.2d 219 (D.C.Cir. 1962), recognized that the alternative defenses of innocence and entrapment are not inconsistent.
In conclusion, this court should adopt the Demma and Hansford approach and overrule Johnston. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.