United States v. Terrance Ryan

289 F.3d 1339, 2002 WL 832405
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 2, 2002
Docket00-16547
StatusPublished
Cited by90 cases

This text of 289 F.3d 1339 (United States v. Terrance Ryan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Terrance Ryan, 289 F.3d 1339, 2002 WL 832405 (11th Cir. 2002).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

On appeal, co-defendants Terrance Ryan (“Ryan”) and Rohan St. Von Evening (“Ev-ering”) raise numerous issues pertaining to their jury trial and sentences on various charges. We address these issues seria-tim.

I. Terrance Ryan

On August 15, 2000, Terrance Ryan was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, attempt to possess with the intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846(b)(l)(B)(vii), and travel in interstate commerce with intent to promote an unlawful activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1952(a)(3) and 2. All charges arose from Ryan’s efforts to buy marijuana from a confidential informant and government agents. On December 11, 2000, Ryan was sentenced to concurrent terms of imprisonment of 70 months on each of the drug charges and 60 months on the interstate travel charge.

Ryan appeals the district court’s refusal to instruct the jury on his claim of “sentencing entrapment,” that is, his claim that the government entrapped him into agreeing to purchase a greater quantity of drugs than he was predisposed to purchase, and that he should not be held accountable for the larger quantity to which he was entrapped.

This court has previously rejected the notion that a sentencing court could impose a lesser sentence on the grounds that a defendant was entrapped into handling a larger quantity of drugs than he was predisposed to handle. See United States v. Williams, 954 F.2d 668, 672-73 (11th Cir.1992). However, Ryan urges us to overrule our holding in Williams in light of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), which, as applied to this case, mandates that the quantity of drugs for which Ryan should be held responsible be found by a jury find beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than by a sentencing court using the preponder- *1343 anee of the evidence standard. 1 In response, the government argues that Ap-prendi does not impact the established law regarding entrapment, and also that under such law Ryan did not produce sufficient evidence to warrant an entrapment instruction.

The impact of Apprendi on the availability of the sentencing entrapment defense has not yet been addressed in any published federal appellate opinion. We do not reach the question here because even if the defense were available, instructions on the defense were clearly not warranted on the evidence presented in this case.

Assuming that sentencing entrapment is a recognized defense to be raised before a jury in this circuit, we consider its viability in this case according to those rules applicable to a traditional entrapment defense. In this circuit, a successful entrapment defense consists of two elements: 1) government inducement of the crime, and 2) lack of predisposition on the part of the defendant. United States v. Brown, 43 F.3d 618, 623 (11th Cir.1995). The right to present the defense is conditional, since

[bjefore an entrapment defense may be presented to the jury, an evidentiary foundation for a valid entrapment defense must be present. In essence, this means that the trial court must determine whether a juror could entertain a reasonable doubt about whether the defendant was entrapped. This court, and its predecessor the Fifth Circuit, have articulated the standard as “some evidence must be shown, but more than a scintilla must be presented.”

United States v. Alston, 895 F.2d 1362, 1367 (11th Cir.1990) (citations omitted). Furthermore,

[t]he determination of whether a sufficient evidentiary foundation exists in the record which could support a jury’s acceptance of an entrapment defense “is properly a question for the trial judge, the standard of review being abuse of discretion.”

Id. at 1368 (citations omitted).

In laying an evidentiary foundation for entrapment, the defendant bears the initial burden of production as to government inducement; once the defendant meets this burden, the burden shifts to the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was predisposed to commit the crime. See Brown, 43 F.3d at 623. A defendant may meet his initial burden

by producing any evidence sufficient to raise a jury issue that the government’s conduct created a substantial risk that the offense would be committed by a person other than one ready to commit *1344 it. This burden is light because a defendant is generally entitled to put a recognized defense to the jury where sufficient evidence exists for a reasonable jury to find in her favor. Nevertheless, evidence of the government’s mere suggestion of a crime or initiation of contact is not enough. Instead, government inducement requires an element of persuasion or mild coercion. As the First Circuit has recently observed, inducement consists of opportunity plus something like excessive pressure or manipulation of a non-criminal motive.

Id. (citations, punctuation omitted). “Persuasion or mild coercion” may be shown if defendant “demonstrat[es] that he had not favorably received the government plan, and the government had to ‘push it’ on him, or that several attempts at setting up an illicit deal had failed and on at least one occasion he had directly refused to participate.” Alston, 895 F.2d at 1368 (citations omitted). The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the defendant. See United States v. Williams, 728 F.2d 1402, 1404 (11th Cir.1984).

If the defendant meets his initial burden, that is,

[ojnce there is some evidence that the government induced the defendant to commit the crime, the question of entrapment becomes a factual one for the jury to decide. In that situation the defendant is entitled to have his defensive theory of the case put before the jury with appropriate instructions from the trial judge. It is elementary law that the defendant in a criminal case is entitled to have presented instructions relating to a theory of defense for which there is any foundation in the evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
289 F.3d 1339, 2002 WL 832405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-terrance-ryan-ca11-2002.