FAQ: Entrapment Defenses in Miami

FAQ: Entrapment Defenses in Miami

Hey y’all! Entrapment is a confusing legal defense that comes up a lot in Miami criminal cases. As a non-lawyer living here in Miami, I wanted to break it down into a simple FAQ so regular folks like us can understand it better. Here we go!

What is entrapment?

Entrapment is when the police, or someone working with the police like an informant, tricks or pressures you into committing a crime you wouldn’t normally commit. For example, if an undercover cop kept asking you to sell him drugs over and over until you finally gave in, that could be entrapment. The key is that you have to show you wouldn’t have committed the crime if the police hadn’t coerced you into it.

What are the two types of entrapment defenses in Florida?

There are two ways you can claim entrapment in Florida:

1. Subjective entrapment – This looks at whether you were already willing to commit the crime, or if the police tricked you into doing it when you wouldn’t have otherwise. The focus here is on your state of mind.
2. Objective entrapment – This only looks at the police or informant’s behavior, not your state of mind. The question is whether their actions went too far and violated your due process rights.

How do I show subjective entrapment?

To prove subjective entrapment, your lawyer needs to show:

1. The police or their informant encouraged or pressured you to commit the crime.
2. You weren’t already willing to commit the crime – you didn’t have a “predisposition” to do it.

If there are factual disputes about what happened, the jury will decide if you were entrapped or not. But if the facts are clear, the judge can rule on subjective entrapment before it goes to a jury.

How do I show objective entrapment?

Objective entrapment focuses totally on the police or informant’s conduct. Your lawyer just needs to show their behavior was so inappropriate that it violated your due process rights under the Florida constitution. Things like:

• Threatening or harassing you
• Not stopping when you said you didn’t want to commit the crime
• Targeting you for no reason, when you weren’t doing anything illegal

If the police behavior was this bad, the judge can rule the case should be dismissed, even before trial, because your rights were violated.

When does entrapment NOT apply?

There are some cases where you can’t claim entrapment:

• If a regular person who wasn’t working with police pressured you into the crime
• If the police just presented you with the opportunity to commit the crime but didn’t actively pressure you
• If you can only show the police suggested the crime, but didn’t coerce you into it

What happens if I win on an entrapment defense?

If the judge or jury agrees you were entrapped, the charges against you get dismissed and you don’t get punished for the crime. However, the police officers or informants who entrapped you don’t get charged with any crime themselves. Entrapment just gets you off the hook.

When should I claim entrapment?

You can bring up entrapment at different points:

• • In a pretrial motion to dismiss
  • During trial in a motion for acquittal
  • At the end of trial, asking for a jury instruction on entrapment

At the end of the trial, your lawyer can ask the judge to give the jury a specific instruction explaining entrapment and how they should consider it when deciding if you are guilty. The judge will usually agree to give the instruction if there is enough evidence presented at trial showing police coercion that could amount to entrapment.

• • Appealing based on entrapment

If you are convicted at trial, you can raise an entrapment argument again on appeal. The appeals court will look at the trial record and decide if the evidence was strong enough to prove entrapment. If they think it was, they can overturn your conviction. [1]

• • Entrapment in undercover operations

Miami police and federal agencies do a lot of undercover drug and vice stings down here. There are rules about how far undercover cops can go to induce someone into committing a crime before it becomes entrapment. For example, they usually can’t pressure you multiple times if you resist, use intimidation or coercion, or target you for no reason if you weren’t already committing similar crimes. [2]

• • When entrapment may not work

If you have a past criminal record similar to the crime you were entrapped into, it will be hard to argue you had no predisposition to commit it. Or if you took any steps on your own to further the crime, a jury may not believe you were entrapped. The focus is on the government’s conduct, but your state of mind matters too. [3]

• • Talk to a lawyer!

Entrapment cases turn on the specific facts and require understanding complex legal rules. Don’t try to figure it out alone – get advice from an experienced Miami criminal defense attorney. They can evaluate your case and build the strongest entrapment argument for you if it applies. [4][5]