Cermak v. United States
| Decision Date | 06 February 1925 |
| Docket Number | No. 4177.,4177. |
| Citation | 4 F.2d 99 |
| Parties | CERMAK v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Wm. L. Day, of Cleveland, Ohio (Day & Day, of Cleveland, Ohio, on the brief), for plaintiff in error.
P. J. Mullen, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Cleveland, Ohio (A. E. Bernsteen, M. A. McCormack, and Fred S. Day, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of Cleveland, Ohio, on the brief), for the United States.
Before DENISON, MACK, and KNAPPEN, Circuit Judges.
This defendant below was a drug clerk, and he sold morphine to an addict, who at the time of the sale was acting as a "stool pigeon" for the narcotic inspectors. The trial judge told the jury that it should not consider at all the defense of entrapment. Hence all the testimony along that line must be taken most strongly for the defense.
Cermak's testimony, in connection with permissible interferences from other testimony, tended to show that he had never before broken this law; that the addict, during the period before he was under the definite employment by the inspectors, had several times tried to buy morphine from Cermak, using great urgency and stressing his desperate need of it, but that Cermak had constantly refused, and had urged him to take a cure and break the habit; that the addict then reported to the inspectors that he thought he could make a "buy" from Cermak; that they told him to go ahead and furnished him the necessary money; that at the next interview the addict finally, by persistently urging his great need, and his family's unfortunate condition, and the way in which he would get work, and help his family, and break off the habit, if he could have this temporary help, overcame Cermak's reluctance; and thereupon, with knowledge that he was breaking the law and in an endeavor to do it secretly, Cermak made the sale.
This, to us, is the typical case in which the defense of entrapment should be sustained, upon the grounds of public policy stated in the Woo Wai Case, 223 F. 412, 137 C. C. A. 604.1 If, up to and at the time when the addict finally overcomes the reluctance of the seller, and by his persistence creates the criminal intent, where it was not and otherwise would not have been, the addict is still nothing but an expectant buyer, acting wholly for himself, even though he intends to inform and instigate a prosecution, the fact that, before the purchase is finally made, he has put himself under official direction and has become the agent of the inspectors,...
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United States v. Thompson
...cert. denied, 342 U.S. 872, 72 S.Ct. 115, 96 L.Ed. 656, rehearing denied, 342 U.S. 899, 72 S.Ct. 232, 96 L. Ed. 673; and Cermak v. United States, 4 F.2d 99 (C.A.6). In the present case the testimony establishes that the impetus for the conspiracy came from the appellants. This is not a case......
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State v. Dolce
...not have committed. For examples of entrapment, see Sherman v. United States, supra; Sorrells v. United States, supra; Cermak v. United States, 4 F.2d 99 (6 Cir. 1925); Stein v. United States, 166 F.2d 851 (9 Cir. 1948), cert. denied 334 U.S. 844, 68 S.Ct. 1512, 92 L.Ed. 1768 (1948); People......
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United States v. Head
...of entrapment is well established in a long line of cases and is followed in this circuit. Scriber v. United States, 4 F.2d 97; Cermak v. United States, 4 F.2d 99; Rodgers v. United States, 138 F.2d 992; Shaw v. United States, 151 F.2d 967; United States v. Hackett, 303 F.2d 33, cert. den. ......
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Shaw v. United States, 9932.
...done to overcome shrinking or reluctance by the appellants. Compare Scriber v. United States, 6 Cir., 4 F.2d 97, with Cermak v. United States, 6 Cir., 4 F.2d 99. The officers furnished an opportunity for a violation of the regulations and nothing more. There was no enticement to violation, ......