Entrapment is a defense to criminal charges. It is based on interactions between the defendant and law enforcement before or during the alleged crime. It arises when police officers use threats, coercion, fraud, and any other undue influence to make the defendant commit a crime.
Take note that there is a difference between opportunity and entrapment. It is not enough for a defendant to say that a police offer gave him an opportunity to commit the crime since reasonable individuals generally resist temptations to violate the law. To help you understand this further, consider the following examples:
Case #1: Sam White is a police officer that goes undercover at a party. John Doe sells White some illegal drugs and gets arrested. Doe testifies in court that the illegal drugs were merely for his personal use and that he only sold them to White because he told him that his ill father needed them to relieve pain. White even assured Doe that he was not a police officer. However, since White is an actual police officer, he is allowed to lie to catch criminals in the act. So, his actions do not really amount to entrapment. He only gave Doe an opportunity to violate the law. Doe could have refused to sell White the illegal drugs.
Case #2: Pete Dawson is a police officer that goes undercover at a party. Matt Cooper sells Dawson some illegal drugs and gets arrested. Cooper testifies in court that the illegal drugs were merely for his personal use and that he refused to sell Dawson any drugs at the party, even though Dawson told Cooper that his ill father needed them to relieve pain. However, Dawson kept pleading for the drugs for two weeks. He even told Cooper that his ill father will die if he did not give him some drugs. Cooper continued to refuse Dawson until he told him that his ill father was dying soon and that the drugs were the only way to keep him comfortable. Cooper felt sorry for Dawson, so he sold him the drugs. Cooper got arrested immediately. The repeated lies and entreaties of Dawson amount to entrapment.
In the above given examples, the defendant in Case #1 gets the guilty verdict. The defendant in Case #2 gets the not guilty verdict because the police officer used extreme behavior and fraud as coercion.
In essence, entrapment is an affirmative defense. It has to be proved by the preponderance of evidence. The defendant has to show that a law enforcement officer has induced him to commit the crime. He also has to show that he was not predisposed to commit such crime prior to the intervention of the government.
If you ever find yourself in a similar case, you need to prove that you were not inclined to commit the crime before the police officer coerced you into doing it. You should contact a lawyer to help you prove that you are a victim of entrapment. Your lawyer will analyze your case and help you deal with your situation.
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