Court Opinion

ID: 9843027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:24:43.958208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:25.938451
License: Public Domain

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I am unconvinced that affirmance of Marino’s conviction on this record is the proper course. The majority’s decision to affirm — in an errant departure from the internal operating procedures of this Court —is predicated upon the conclusion that a prior decision of this Court has been overruled sub silentio by a subsequent decision of a panel of this Court. I do not believe that result to be correct either procedurally or substantively and, accordingly, I dissent.
I was the author of this Court’s opinion affirming the district court’s determination that, because Marino did not admit to receiving stolen bonds knowingly, he was not entitled to an instruction of entrapment. See United States v. Marino, No. 87-5339, slip op. at 5 (3d Cir. Dec. 23, 1987), [838 F.2d 463 (table)] vacated and remanded, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1590, 99 L.Ed.2d 904 (1988). At the time at which it was entered, the district court’s decision cor*555rectly interpreted and applied the controlling precedent of this Circuit. See United States v. Hill, 655 F.2d 512 (3d Cir.1981); United States v. Jannotti, 673 F.2d 578 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1106, 102 S.Ct. 2906, 73 L.Ed.2d 1315 (1982). The district court concluded, as a matter of law, that because of Marino’s alternate theories of defense, he was not entitled to the entrapment instruction. It did not predicate its conclusion on alternate grounds and the decision that it entered makes no reference to any evaluation of the sufficiency of the evidence of entrapment presented by Mari-no. See United States v. Marino, No. 86-36, slip op. at 4 (D.N.J. Apr. 22, 1987); see also, United States v. Marino, No. 86-36, Transcript of Proceedings at 12-14 (D.N.J. Sept. 29, 1986) (transcript of charging conference), reprinted in Appellant’s Appendix at 1270-72. The Supreme Court has now instructed us that the view applied by this Court in Hill and Jannotti and in our affirmance of Marino’s conviction is incorrect. See Mathews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58, 108 S.Ct. 883, 99 L.Ed.2d 54 (1988). Because that view was the only basis for the district court’s decision, I would remand for the district court to determine whether the evidence of entrapment entitled Marino to a jury instruction on that defense.1
The majority has incorrectly reached its conclusion to affirm predicated upon its own evaluation of the quantum of the evidence of entrapment presented. That conclusion is inconsistent with this Court’s decision in United States v. Watson, 489 F.2d 504 (3d Cir.1973) which held that
[t]he charge [of entrapment] must be given, however unreasonable the judge would consider a verdict in favor of the defendant to be, when the accused shows (1) evidence that the Government initiated the crime, regardless of the amount of pressure applied to the defendant, and (2) any evidence negating the defendant’s propensity to commit the crime.
Watson, 489 F.2d at 509 (emphases added). Moreover, this Court noted in Watson that in “determining] whether [the defendant is] entitled to an entrapment charge.... we must resolve all conflicts in testimony in favor of the defendant ... no matter how improbable we may find the defense version of the facts.” Id. at 507 (citation omitted). I read Watson as good law for this Circuit and applicable to this case.
The majority opinion implies that Watson is no longer viable precedent for our circuit. The majority suggests that Watson relied upon a theory that has been overruled by this Court’s more recent opinion in United States v. El-Gawli, 837 F.2d 142 (3d Cir.) cert. denied — U.S. -, 109 S.Ct. 55, 102 L.Ed.2d 34 (1988). See maj. at 552 n. 6 (“[t]hus, whatever the precedential viability of Watson where the evidence has been introduced that the Government initiated the crime (however the term ‘initiated’ may be construed), El-Gawli has now decreed that in this Circuit, as in others, evidence of mere solicitation, as a matter of law, is not germane to the jury’s determination of entrapment”). That conclusion is wholly inconsistent with the internal procedures of our Court which provide that only the Court sitting in banc may overrule the prior decision of a panel of our Court.2 *556Moreover, the conclusion that El-Gawli overruled Watson is substantively incorrect.
El-Gawli makes no reference at all to Watson, and neither does it address the standard enunciated by Watson for when a defendant is entitled to an entrapment charge. Indeed, El-Gawli does not address the issue of when the entrapment charge should be given in any context. That decision concerned only the sufficiency of the charge that was given in that case in light of what the defendant had to demonstrate in order to succeed on the defense of entrapment. It did not address whether the charge should have been given which is the focus of Watson.
In the present case, Marino presented evidence that the government agent, Swir-sky, initiated the contact for Marino’s participation in the illicit enterprise. Marino also offered evidence of his character and testimony concerning his attempts to verify the legitimacy of the bonds and securities which he argued demonstrated a lack of predisposition to criminal activity. The majority cites evidence in the trial record that counter-balances Marino’s evidence. See maj. at 553 (noting evidence that Marino “initiated telephone calls to Swirsky and returned Swirsky’s calls to consummate the securities transactions” and that Mari-no suggested meeting places). The fact that the government presented evidence that showed that, despite its initiation of the contact with Marino, Marino was inclined to criminal activity, however, does not mean that Marino was not entitled to a jury instruction on entrapment.
I concede arguendo that the quantum of evidence referenced by the majority weighs in favor of the conclusion that Marino was not entrapped and that, as a juror, I would not have been persuaded that Marino’s evidence was sufficient to enable him to prevail on that defense. That inquiry, however, is not relevant to our disposition of this appeal. The relevant inquiry is whether Marino has made a showing that the government initiated the contact and that he had a lack of predisposition to criminal conduct. Watson, 489 F.2d at 509. Marino has presented such evidence and, as I read the applicable precedent of this Court, that evidence is sufficient to meet the threshold requisite for a charge of entrapment. See United States v. Engler, 806 F.2d 425 (3d Cir.1986) (“[t]o be entitled to an entrapment charge in this circuit, ‘a defendant must first present evidence both that the government initiated the crime ... and that the defendant was otherwise not predisposed to commit the crime.’ ”), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1019, 107 S.Ct. 1900, 95 L.Ed.2d 506 (1987). See also United States v. Gambino, 788 F.2d 938, 943 (3d Cir.) (“to be entitled to an entrapment charge, a defendant must first present evidence that the government initiated the crime, regardless of the amount of pressure applied, and that the defendant was otherwise not predisposed to commit the crime”) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 825, 107 S.Ct. 98, 93 L.Ed.2d 49 (1986). Significantly, in Engler, we noted that “[ojnce the defendant has proffered such evidence, the burd,en shifts to the government to disprove the elements of the entrapment defense beyond a reasonable doubt.” Engler, 806 F.2d at 428 (emphasis added). On this record, the inconsistencies in the proffered evidence — no matter how this Court views that evidence — suggests that the district court, which is in a better position than this Court to evaluate the evidence, should have the opportunity on remand to determine whether an entrapment charge was warranted.
In my view, the majority also reads too much into Mathews. The majority suggests that that decision negates Watson and makes the standard for entitlement to an entrapment instruction more strict. The clear focus of Mathews, however, was upon the proffer of inconsistent theories of defense — not on the elements of entrapment, and the majority’s suggestion that the Supreme Court’s dicta regarding the standard for an entrapment charge overrules Watson or constrains the decision of this Court in the present case, see maj. at 552 n. 5, is simply without merit.3
*557The subsequent history of Mathews itself, although certainly not dispositive of anything in the present case, perhaps provides the most informative guidance. After vacating the defendant’s conviction, the Supreme Court remanded to the Court of Appeals for that court to consider the sufficiency of the evidence. The Court noted that that question had been “pretermitted by the Court of Appeals, and it will be open for consideration by that court on remand.” Id. In Mathews, unlike in the present case, there was a compelling reason to consider the issue of sufficiency of the evidence because the government had previously challenged the sufficiency of the evidence to the district court and the district court had indicated that it had found the evidence of entrapment thin. See Mathews, 108 S.Ct. at 886 (“District Court noted that the evidence of entrapment was ‘shaky at best.’ ”). Despite a record indicating only slight evidence of entrapment, however, the appellate court nonetheless remanded to the district court for its reconsideration of the sufficiency of the evidence of entrapment, rather than enter a conviction based upon its own evaluation. U.S. v. Mathews, 848 F.2d 196 (7th Cir.1988) (Table of Decisions Without Published Opinions). Cf. United States v. Graham, 856 F.2d 756, 763 (6th Cir.1988) (vacating a conviction in light of Mathews and noting that “[w]hile we would be inclined to find that there was insufficient evidence to warrant ... an [entrapment] instruction ... the district court is in a much better position than we are to evaluate the sufficiency of the evidence that was presented and further to make the determination of whether his early ruling deterred the defendant from presenting evidence he might otherwise have presented.”)
I believe that the present case is also a case that requires remand. We did not pretermit the issue of the sufficiency of the evidence because the district court did not reach that issue — even in dicta — in its holding. No doubt, the approach taken by the majority will make it easier for appellate judges to dispose of matters completely by appellate fact-finding. As this case demonstrates, however, that approach blurs the fundamental distinction that exists between the role of the district court and the responsibility of appellate review. In my view, the majority opinion intrudes too far upon the province of the district court which is to evaluate the evidence presented and determine in the first instance whether a jury instruction is warranted. For that reason, I respectfully dissent.

. The question of whether this case should be remanded to the district court for its determination of the sufficiency of the evidence in support of a jury instruction of entrapment, or that the judgment of conviction should be reversed for a faulty jury instruction, is a close one. The evidence presented by Marino that the government initiated the contact for criminal activity and that he was not predisposed to commit a crime suggests that an entrapment instruction should have been given. However, in light of the fact that the district court never evaluated the sufficiency of the evidence of entrapment, I would prefer remand.

. See Internal Operating Procedures of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Chapter 8(C) [Heáring or Rehearing In Banc]. Our rules explicitly state that
[i]t is the tradition of this court that reported panel opinions are binding on subsequent panels. Thus, no subsequent panel overrules a published opinion of a previous panel. Court in banc consideration is required to overrule a published opinion of this court.
IOP Chapter 8(C) (emphasis added).

. Moreover, the manner by which the majority reads the dicta in Mathews appears to me inac*557curate. In the final paragraph of the majority opinion in Mathews, the Court noted that "[t]he Government contends as an alternative basis for affirming the judgment below that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support an instruction on the defense of entrapment.” Mathews, 108 S.Ct. at 888. The Court then noted that "[o]f course evidence that government agents merely afforded an opportunity or facilities for the commission of the crime would be insufficient to warrant such an instruction.” Id. To my mind, this statement does not have the broad meaning attributed to it by the majority. It addresses only the instance in which a criminal defendant has demonstrated that the government "facilitated” the commission of a crime by providing the means. It does not address the instance in which, as Marino alleges, the government initiated the contact for involvement in criminal activity. Certainly, both initiation and facilitation are relevant to the question of whether a criminal defendant was in fact entrapped, but they are substantively different. The former, with supporting evidence, gives rise to a presumption that the defendant was not predisposed to commit a crime which requires rebuttal by the government. For that reason, our Court has enunciated the rule that evidence of initiation by the government, together with other evidence of lack of predisposition to criminal activity, are sufficient to warrant a jury instruction. That test has not been called into doubt and, as I read the dicta in Mathews, even if it were controlling it would not be read accurately to require that the decision by the district court to grant an entrapment instruction on the record of this case be reversed as error.