If you are facing criminal charges, understanding your legal rights and options is crucial in protecting yourself. Using entrapment as a defense can significantly affect your criminal case. For more information and skilled legal advice, contact a Bergen County criminal defense attorney today.
Entrapment is a practice where a law enforcement agent induces a person to commit a crime that the person would not have committed otherwise. It essentially means that a police officer or other government official coerced or persuaded an individual into committing a crime through various efforts.
Entrapment requires two important parts:
Both of these must be true in order to effectively argue entrapment. A government agent or entity had to have taken some action to pressure the defendant to commit the crime. However, the more important aspect is whether the defendant would have committed the crime on their own.
For example, suppose an individual is a known drug dealer who has been arrested and convicted of drug trafficking in the past. A police officer goes undercover as a buyer and sets up a meeting. They are inducing the crime by requesting that the individual sell them drugs and staging the offense. However, the individual is predisposed to drug crimes and would have likely trafficked the drugs with or without the officer’s encouragement. Therefore, entrapment is not a valid defense.
However, suppose a police officer goes undercover to investigate an individual they suspect of theft. The officer creates a false narrative about how they are in debt and need to acquire a high-value item, then begs the individual to steal the item for them. The individual refuses repeatedly until the officer’s badgering finally wears them down and they follow through with the theft. Entrapment can be used as a valid defense, as the individual was not predisposed to theft and would not have committed the crime had it not been for the government agent’s insistence.
As found in Jacobson v. United States, 1992, “Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person’s mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute.”
This precedent means that entrapment can be a strong defensive strategy for a defendant in a criminal case. When used effectively, it could result in a reduced sentence, a verdict of not guilty, or even a dismissal of the charges.
When a government agent improperly forces an individual to engage in criminal activity, it is not fair for them to prosecute those actions because they never would have occurred without the law enforcement officer’s input. If the defendant can establish that they were induced to commit the crime and would otherwise not have done so, they have a good chance of winning their case and avoiding a criminal conviction.
For more information and skilled representation, reach out to an experienced defense attorney today.
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