Court Opinion

ID: 9629284
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:39:59.041356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:17.305356
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(dissenting):
The trial court gave entirely adequate, clear and understandable instructions on entrapment:
No. 10. It is a defense that the defendant was entrapped into committing the offense. Entrapment occurs when a law enforcement officer or a person directed by or acting in cooperation with' the officer induces the commission of an offense in order to obtain evidence of the commission for prosecution by methods creating a substantial risk that the offense would be committed by one not otherwise ready to commit it. Conduct merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.
No. 11. Entrapment is properly regarded as a factor tending to raise a reasonable doubt that defendant freely and voluntarily committed the offense charged; in determining the validity of an entrapment defense, the jury must *505therefore consider (1) whether it appears beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was the result of defendant’s voluntary will and desire to commit it, or (2) whether it was induced or motivated by actions of the police officers; if evidence as to the second proposition raises a reasonable doubt as to the validity of the first, there can be no conviction. [All emphasis herein added.]
Those, together with other instructions, plainly and fairly presented to the jury the issue as to whether they believed from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant on his own initiative voluntarily committed the crime. They so concluded and the trial court similarly gave its approval. I have no desire to join in becoming a super-jury to free this defendant. It appears that this conviction was obtained after careful and extensive investigation into a crime that is carried on with the greatest possible deviousness and secrecy.
Defendant was afforded full opportunity to stand upon his rights and have the advantage of all of the protections of our law. Upon a fair trial, he was convicted of being engaged in dealing in heroin. It is one of the most iniquitous of crimes because it has such far-reaching effects in the world of crime in that it is interrelated with so many others. In that connection, it is appropriate to observe that this was not any isolated transaction, but that in addition to the crime charged, the evidence plainly indicates that over considerable period of time the defendant had been involved in trafficking in heroin with various other persons.
I would affirm the jury verdict and the judgment.