Court Opinion

ID: 9486710
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:56:49.741764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:52.880411
License: Public Domain

RYMER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Accepting, as I am bound to by United States v. Lessard, 17 F.3d 303, 306 (9th Cir.1994), that an instruction deficient under United States v. Mkhsian, 5 F.3d 1306, 1311 (9th Cir.1993), amounts to plain error, I nevertheless respectfully dissent because I believe the district court’s instruction in this case satisfies Mkhsian.
The two paragraphs of the district court’s instruction quoted by the majority, maj. op. at 252, appear at first blush to run afoul of Mkhsian’s holding that “ ‘[ajlready’ does not necessarily mean ‘before the [government intervened[.]’ ” 5 F.3d at 1311 (second alteration in original) (quoting Jacobson v. United States, — U.S. -, -, n. 2, 112 S.Ct. 1535, 1541 n. 2, 118 L.Ed.2d 174 (1992)). But that is not all that the district court stated in its entrapment instruction, and I am convinced that the extra language the district court included satisfies Mkhsian.
As I read Mkhsian, and in particular its reference to other cases where the district courts’ instructions provided correct statements of the law, see id., a proper entrapment instruction must direct the jury’s attention to the defendant’s criminal disposition before government officers intervened. The same instruction that contains the language quoted by the majority also includes the following language:
If then, the jury should find beyond a reasonable doubt from the evidence in the case that, before anything at all occurred respecting the alleged offense involved in this case, the defendant was ready and willing to commit crimes such as are charged in the indictment, whenever opportunity was afforded, and that government officers or their agents did no more than offer the opportunity, then the jury should find that the defendant is not a victim of entrapment.
On the other hand, if the evidence in the case should leave you with a reasonable doubt whether the defendant had the previous intent or purpose to commit an offense of the character charged, apart from the inducement or persuasion of some officer or agent of the government, then it is your duty to find him not guilty. The burden is on the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not entrapped.
(Emphasis added.) Although the question is close, I believe these instructions satisfy Mkhsian. The instruction did not state “before the government informant intervened,” as Mkhsian appears to favor, but instead referred to “before anything at all occurred respecting the alleged offense involved in this case.” There is no evidence, however, that there was any government intervention apart from the offense in this ease.1 Accordingly, I believe the instruction passes muster under Mkhsian.

. This is in contrast to United States v. North, 746 F.2d 627 (9th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1058, 105 S.Ct. 1773, 84 L.Ed.2d 832 (1985), which Mkhsian overruled, where the defendant and the undercover agent engaged in five separate drug transactions: the government didn't charge on the first, the jury acquitted on the second, and the defendant was found guilty for the latter three.