United States v. Bell

38 M.J. 358, 1993 CMA LEXIS 153, 1993 WL 503122
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedSeptember 30, 1993
DocketNo. 66,143; CMR No. 8903667
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 38 M.J. 358 (United States v. Bell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Bell, 38 M.J. 358, 1993 CMA LEXIS 153, 1993 WL 503122 (cma 1993).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Appellant has been convicted in a contested trial of two specifications of wrongful distribution of crack cocaine. He has also been convicted of wrongful use of crack cocaine. The Court of Military Review affirmed these findings. We granted review to consider two issues. 36 MJ 204.

The Court upholds the decision below as to the distribution specifications for the reasons stated in the opinion by Judge COX, joined by Chief Judge SULLIVAN and Judge CRAWFORD; and in the separate opinion by Judge WISS. For the reasons stated in Judge GIERKE’s opinion, he dissents from upholding the decision below as to the second distribution.

The Court, however, holds that the decision below as to the use specification is erroneous for the reasons stated in the opinions of Chief Judge SULLIVAN, and Judges GIERKE and WISS. This requires reassessment of the sentence which was affirmed below. For the reasons stated in Judge COX’s opinion, he and Judge CRAWFORD dissent from this holding.

The decision of the United States Army Court of Military Review on remand (34 MJ 846) is reversed as to specification 3 of the Charge and the sentence. The finding of guilty thereon is set aside, and that specification is dismissed. The record of trial is returned to the Judge Advocate General of the Army for remand to that court for reassessment of the sentence based on the remaining findings of guilty. In all other respects the decision below is affirmed.

COX, Judge:

A general court-martial, convened at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, convicted appellant, contrary to his pleas, of two specifications of wrongfully distributing and one specification of wrongfully using crack cocaine, in violation of Article 112a, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC § 912a. The officer and enlisted panel sentenced appellant to a dishonorable discharge, confinement for 20 years, total forfeitures, and reduction to E-l. The Court of Military Review, in an unpublished opinion, affirmed the findings of guilty but reduced the confinement to 10 years. Otherwise, it affirmed the sentence.

On initial petition to this Court, we set aside the decision of the Court of Military Review and remanded the case to that court for reconsideration in light of our decision in United States v. Cooper (Cooper I), 33 MJ 356 (1991). United States v. Bell, 34 MJ 72 (CMA 1991). The Court of Military Review, relying on the Cooper majority, again affirmed. United States v. Bell, 34 MJ 846 (1992). Subsequent to the Court of Military Review’s second Bell decision, we reconsidered Cooper, which we again affirmed in a divided opinion. United States v. Cooper (Cooper II), 35 MJ 417 (CMA 1992).

Bell is again before us on these issues:

I
WHETHER THE TARGETING AND SOLICITING OF APPELLANT (A COCAINE ADDICT SEEKING RECOVERY IN A REHABILITATION PROGRAM) TO OBTAIN DRUGS IS VIOLATIVE OF GOVERNING DIRECTIVES AND DUE PROCESS ENTRAPMENT.
II
WHETHER THE GOVERNMENT DISPROVED THE DEFENSE OF ENTRAPMENT BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.

Statutory-Construction Entrapment

As the Supreme Court has observed:

[Entrapment is a relatively limited defense. It is rooted, not in any authority of the Judicial Branch to dismiss prosecutions for what it feels to have been “overzealous law enforcement,” but instead in the notion that Congress could not have intended criminal punishment for a defendant who has committed all the elements of a proscribed offense but was [360]*360induced to commit them by the Government.
Sorrells [v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 (1932) ] and Sherman [v. United States, 356 U.S. 369, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Ed.2d 848 (1958) ] both recognize “that the fact that officers or employees of the Government merely afford opportunities or facilities for the commission of the offense does not defeat the prosecution,” 287 U.S., at 441, 53 S.Ct., at 212; 356 U.S., at 372, 78 S.Ct., at 820-21. Nor will the mere fact of deceit defeat a prosecution, see, e.g., Lewis v. United States, 385 U.S. 206, 208-209, 87 S.Ct. 424, 425-26, 17 L.Ed.2d 312 (1966), for there are circumstances when the use of deceit is the only practicable law enforcement technique available. It is only when the Government’s deception actually implants the criminal design in the mind of the defendant that the defense of entrapment comes into play.

United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 435-36, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 1644-45, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973).

The office of the entrapment defense is to draw the line “between the trap for the unwary innocent and the trap for the unwary criminal.” Sherman v. United States, supra at 372, 78 S.Ct. 820-26. Where the issue of entrapment is raised by the evidence, “the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant was disposed to commit the criminal act prior to first being approached by Government agents.” Jacobson v. United States, — U.S. —, —, 112 S.Ct. 1535, 1540, 118 L.Ed.2d 174 (1992). To facilitate that determination, the defendant “may examine the conduct of the government agent.” Sherman v. United States, supra at 373, 78 S.Ct. at 821.

“[0]n the other hand, the accused will be subjected to an appropriate and searching inquiry into his own conduct and predisposition’ as bearing on his claim of innocence.” Id., quoting Sorrells v. United States, supra at 451, 53 S.Ct. at 216. The entrapment doctrine does not require law enforcement agents to have evidence of a defendant’s criminal activity before approaching the defendant. E.g., United States v. Swets, 563 F.2d 989, 991 (10th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1022, 98 S.Ct. 748, 54 L.Ed.2d 770 (1978). Evidence that “a person accepts a criminal offer without being offered extraordinary inducements ... demonstrates his predisposition to commit the type of crime involved.” United States v. Evans, 924 F.2d 714, 718 (7th Cir.1991); see also United States v. Ford, 918 F.2d 1343 (8th Cir.1990).

Regarding drug transactions and entrapment, the Supreme Court has commented that an agent deployed to stop the traffic in illegal drugs may offer the opportunity to buy or sell drugs, and, if the offer is accepted, make an arrest on the spot or later. In such a typical case, or in a more elaborate “sting” operation involving government-sponsored fencing where the defendant is simply provided with the opportunity to commit a crime, the entrapment defense is of little use because the ready commission of the criminal act amply demonstrates the defendant’s predisposition.

Jacobson v. United States, supra at —, 112 S.Ct. at 1541.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 M.J. 358, 1993 CMA LEXIS 153, 1993 WL 503122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-bell-cma-1993.