What Is Entrapment?
Patrick Naughton, a top Internet company executive, was arrested last week
for allegedly crossing state lines with the intent to have sex with a
13-year-old girl, whom he had met in an Internet chat room. The 13-year-old
girl turned out to be an FBI agent. Why is this not entrapment?
In most states, a successful entrapment defense requires the defendant to
prove three things:
The idea of committing the crime came from law enforcement officers,
rather than the defendant .
The law enforcement officers induced the person to commit the
crime . Courts have traditionally maintained a high burden of proof for
inducement. Simply affording the defendant the opportunity to commit the crime
does not constitute inducement. For inducement to be proved, officers must have
used coercive or persuasive tactics.
The defendant was not ready and willing to commit this type of crime
before being induced to do so . If an undercover cop bought cocaine from a
person carrying a kilogram of the drug, the seller could not plead entrapment,
even if coercion were involved in the sale, since his intent to sell was clear.
Most courts also allow a defendant's predisposition to be demonstrated through
prior conduct or reputation.
The reported facts of the Naughton case do not appear
consistent with these requirements. Naughton is alleged to have carried on a
five-month Internet relationship with the undercover officer during which he
repeatedly solicited sex and ignored warnings that her age might get him in
trouble. Also, Naughton purportedly frequented chat rooms used by adult men to
contact teen-age girls and is alleged to have had sexually explicit images of
children on his laptop computer.
Next question?
