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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
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ENTRAPMENT was: Re: My final post (WAS Re: I've been sent to my room)
I guess we could call it serendipity that following our lengthy discussions about entrapment by law "enforcement" folks, the Feds in the usuk and russia "sting" (that is to say, entrap) some Del Boy-style ***:
What is a legal sting?
By Rachel Clarke
BBC News Online in Washington
The arrests of three men involved in an alleged plot to sell shoulder- fired missiles is being hailed in the United States as a victory in the war against terror.
Federal agents working with counterparts in Britain and Russia claim to have infiltrated the underworld of arms dealing and arranged the purchase of the missile which experts say could bring down a plane. But even as they posed as criminals, the officers had to ensure that they stayed on the right side of entrapment rules.
Under US law, agents must not coerce someone into committing a crime or the suspects can be set free.
Marc Powers, a partner with the New York law firm of Reed Smith, told BBC News Online that government officers had a variety of options open to them.
"Agents are permitted to engage in different types of deceit and pretence and artifice to find out whether a target has a predisposition to commit a crime," he said.
They can then provide an opportunity for the target to commit that crime, all without being guilty of entrapment. "The bottom line is that simply going up to someone and saying 'I might have an interest in purchasing these, can you assist me?' is not problematic here in the United States," Mr Powers said.
SNIP
Defendants have the right to challenge the evidence against them and if a jury believes they have been entrapped, charges can be dismissed. Courts have recognised that law officers can go too far - such as in the case of a Nebraska farmer indicted in 1987 for receiving child pornography through the post, but only after government agents had spent
26 months offering him such materials.
SNIP
Once the question of entrapment is raised, it is up to the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that government agents did not force the crime.
SNIP - more online
Story from BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3148267.stm Published: 2003/08/13 23:54:18 GMT
What is a legal sting?
By Rachel Clarke
BBC News Online in Washington
The arrests of three men involved in an alleged plot to sell shoulder- fired missiles is being hailed in the United States as a victory in the war against terror.
Federal agents working with counterparts in Britain and Russia claim to have infiltrated the underworld of arms dealing and arranged the purchase of the missile which experts say could bring down a plane. But even as they posed as criminals, the officers had to ensure that they stayed on the right side of entrapment rules.
Under US law, agents must not coerce someone into committing a crime or the suspects can be set free.
Marc Powers, a partner with the New York law firm of Reed Smith, told BBC News Online that government officers had a variety of options open to them.
"Agents are permitted to engage in different types of deceit and pretence and artifice to find out whether a target has a predisposition to commit a crime," he said.
They can then provide an opportunity for the target to commit that crime, all without being guilty of entrapment. "The bottom line is that simply going up to someone and saying 'I might have an interest in purchasing these, can you assist me?' is not problematic here in the United States," Mr Powers said.
SNIP
Defendants have the right to challenge the evidence against them and if a jury believes they have been entrapped, charges can be dismissed. Courts have recognised that law officers can go too far - such as in the case of a Nebraska farmer indicted in 1987 for receiving child pornography through the post, but only after government agents had spent
26 months offering him such materials.
SNIP
Once the question of entrapment is raised, it is up to the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that government agents did not force the crime.
SNIP - more online
Story from BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3148267.stm Published: 2003/08/13 23:54:18 GMT
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