Court Opinion

ID: 9740449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:35:54.524523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:18.330439
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Daily delivered the opinion of the court: Defendant, Willie Toler, was indicted in the criminal court of Cook County on charges of having unlawfully sold narcotic drugs to Richard Tracy on June 8 and 11, 1959. Tracy, a Chicago police officer, had been introduced to defendant by Edward Unsell, a former fellow employee of defendant at a water-pumping station, and who was then working as a special employee of the State’s Attorney’s office. Defendant pleaded not guilty and waived a jury trial, but was subsequently found guilty after a bench trial and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of not less than ten nor more than twelve years. Upon this writ of error the single contention made is that, under the evidence, defendant should have been discharged because he was entrapped into committing the crimes. Past decisions of this court establish that entrapment constitutes a valid defense if officers of the law inspire, incite, persuade or lure a defendant to commit a crime which he otherwise had no intention of perpetrating. (People v. Outten, 13 Ill.2d 21; People v. Clark, 7 Ill.2d 163.) At the same time, however, it is equally well settled that officers may afford opportunities or facilities for the commission of crime, or may use artifice to catch those engaged in criminal ventures, and that the defense of entrapment is not available to one who has the intent and design to commit a criminal offense, and who does commit the essential acts constituting it, merely because an officer, for the purpose of securing evidence, affords such person the opportunity to commit the criminal act, or purposely aids and encourages him in its perpetration. People v. McSmith, 23 Ill.2d 87; 14 I.L.P., Criminal Law, sec. 50. The testimony of the defendant paints a picture of an innocent man who, after being approached by Unsell some twenty times in an effort to get narcotics, finally succumbed to an appeal to his sympathy by Tracy. The latter told him that he worked for a dentist who had a son who was a narcotics addict, that he wanted some “good stuff,” that he might need as much as three or four thousand dollars worth and that he wanted a sample. Defendant stated that he purchased narcotics, without profit to himself, to aid a narcotics addict who was sick. (Cf. Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 2 L. ed. 2d 848.) The proof introduced by the People reflects two sales of narcotics by defendant when the funds were shown to be available, and an intent and willingness on the part of the defendant to commit the crime, shown by his ready complaisance and quick access to substantial quantities of illegal narcotics. We are of the opinion that the officer and special employee did no more than afford defendant the opportunity to commit a criminal act of his own design, and that their actions did not constitute entrapment. (Cf. People v. McSmith, 23 Ill.2d 87; United States v. Perkins, (7th cir.) 190 F.2d 49.) The record also shows a circumstance hardly compatible with naivete and innocence, an elaborate system of delivery devised by defendant whereby the narcotics were never actually seen in his possession. The judgment of the criminal court of Cook County is affirmed. Judgment affirmed.