If you are being charged with a crime in New York, understanding your legal rights and defensive options is crucial to protecting yourself. Continue reading to discover how entrapment might affect your case and work with a skilled Rockland County criminal defense attorney today.
What is Entrapment?
Entrapment is a legal defense that argues that a person committed a crime only because a law enforcement officer or government agent persuaded or pressured them into it. The idea is that the government created the criminal intent in someone who was not already willing or predisposed to commit the crime.
Simply providing an opportunity for someone who is already willing to break the law is not entrapment. For example, if a person was already looking for drugs to buy, and an undercover officer sells them drugs, that is an opportunity, not entrapment. The defense is meant to protect people from law enforcement manufacturing a crime, not someone who was already ready to commit the offense. This issue frequently comes up in cases involving undercover operations, such as:
- Selling or buying drugs
- Prostitution
- Online fraud
- Bribery
- Weapons trafficking
How Does Entrapment Affect a Criminal Case in NY?
Entrapment can be a powerful defense in a criminal case because it shifts the focus from what the defendant did to what the police did. The defense does not argue that the defendant is innocent of the offense but rather that they should be found not guilty because law enforcement created the criminal intent.
If a judge or jury believes the defendant was pressured or persuaded by police into committing a crime they otherwise would not have committed, it can lead to a complete acquittal even if the defendant technically committed the crime.
How Can I Prove Entrapment in My Case?
Proving entrapment can be challenging because the burden of proof is usually on the defendant to show they were improperly convinced to commit the crime. It is not enough to simply say that a police officer or agent gave you a chance to break the law. You must show that they actually pressured you into doing something you would not have done otherwise.
Courts in New York will examine the nature of the government’s conduct. Did the police use excessive persuasion, threats, or emotional appeals? Was the pressure so intense that an otherwise innocent person would feel compelled to commit the crime? The court will also assess your predisposition, meaning whether you were already willing or eager to commit the offense before the police got involved. If you have a history of similar crimes or did not take any convincing, the entrapment defense will likely not work.
To help prove entrapment, your defense team should present evidence like audio or video recordings of the interactions, testimony from witnesses, or any documents showing the extent of the law enforcement officer’s persistence. It is crucial to show a lack of prior intent on your part and demonstrate that the police’s actions went beyond simply offering an opportunity.
