On 25 Sep 2003 05:42:16 -0700, (KidDon) wrote:

The jury has been deliberating for four hours already, indicating that
this is not the clear open and shut some thought for one side, and
some thought for the other. Here is a newspaper reporter's account of
at least part of the key jury instruction on the entrapment defense:

"Chief U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade gave the jury special
directions on how to decide whether Stabler entrapped Sherzer.

'A person is entrapped when law enforcement officers induce or
persuade that person to commit a crime that the person had no previous
intent to commit,' she said, reading from the 16-page jury charge.

'However, there is no entrapment where a defendant is ready and
willing to break the law and the government merely provides what
appears to be a favorable opportunity for the defendant to commit the
crime.'"

"After Granade's instructions, jurors broke for lunch, returning to
begin deliberations around 1 p.m. A little more than three hours
later, they sent a note to the judge asking whether investigators may
induce someone to commit a crime if no crime has been committed prior
to the government's involvement. Granade told them to look again at
copies of the instructions she'd read earlier."

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregiste...8157393420.xml

This sounds like either a confused jury or a confused newspaper
reporter, because the question shows no understanding of the
instruction whatsoever.

Assuming that the government has the burden of overcoming the
entrapment defense beyond a reasonable doubt given that this is a
criminal case (I'm not sure this is a correct assumption in AL), the
real question here appears to be:

Has the government proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Alex Sherzer
had a previous intent to commit a crime and that he was ready and
willing to break the law before the government got involved?

Based upon the limited information reported, a hung jury still appears
to be a real possibility.

KidDon

So, let us say that I am sitting in a hotel room. A naked girl knocks
on my door. I let her in. She then lies down on my bed. I then do what
normal men normally do with a naked girl in their bed.

She turns out to be an FBI Agent and I am arrested.

Do I have an entrapment defense?

Sam Sloan