Crisp v. United States, 7675.

• Decision Date: 20 October 1958
• Docket Number: No. 7675.,7675.
• Citation: 262 F.2d 68
• Parties: Olivera Hardy CRISP, and Preston Alligood, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America. Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

262 F.2d 68 (1958)

Olivera Hardy CRISP, and Preston Alligood, Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America. Appellee.

No. 7675.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued October 6, 1958.

Decided October 20, 1958.

Bryan Grimes, Washington, N. C., for appellant Olivera Hardy Crisp.

LeRoy Scott, Washington, D. C., for appellant Preston Alligood.

Julian T. Gaskill, U. S. Atty., Goldsboro, N. C. (Jane A. Parker, Asst. U. S. Atty., Raleigh, N. C., on brief), for appellee.

Before SOBELOFF, Chief Judge, HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judge, and HARRY E. WATKINS, District Judge.

PER CURIAM.

Appellants were convicted of three separate sales of narcotics in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4705(a). Upon appeal they claim that the trial court erred in refusing to submit a defense of entrapment to the jury, the court holding there was no evidence to support such defense.

The evidence discloses that a Government agent, Montague, went to Washington, North Carolina, to conduct an investigation of suspected narcotics violations. Montague contacted one Roy Roosevelt Warren (a co-defendant here who pleaded guilty and has not appealed), whose name was previously known to Montague as being suspected of narcotics dealings. Warren made sales of morphine to Montague on August 6 and 13, 1957. Seeking to learn Warren's source of supply, Montague asked Warren for more morphine on August 13 and Warren obtained 12 additional tablets for Montague from defendant Crisp. On November 7 and 26 additional sales of morphine were made by Crisp, through Warren as intermediary, to Montague. Crisp was arrested, indicted, tried and convicted on the last two sales.

Crisp does not deny the illegal sales, but urges that the Government, through Warren, entrapped her into violating the law. She testified that she had worked for Warren in his tobacco fields, and Warren owed her money. She said she had no thought of selling narcotics until Warren approached her and told her he was unable to pay her his debt, but that he had a man who would pay her $30 for morphine costing her $1 under her prescription, and that it was only at Warren's insistence that she obtained the narcotics and sold them. There is no evidence that Montague was present or knew of this conversation, or in any manner directed or even suggested from whom or in what manner Warren might supplement his supply of narcotics.

Accepting her story at full value, and looking at all the evidence in a light most favorable to the defendant Crisp, we agree with the court below that there is nothing justifying submission of an entrapment issue to the jury with regard to Crisp. Warren was not a Government agent, and did not know he was dealing with agents until he and Crisp were arrested together on November 26, at the conclusion of Crisp's last sale of morphine. Concerning Crisp, there is not the slightest evidence of entrapment, as that defense is defined in the landmark case of Sorells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 442, 53 S.Ct. 210, 212, 77 L.Ed. 413:

"* * * the criminal design originates with the officials of the government, and they implant in the mind of an innocent person the disposition to commit the alleged offense and induce its commission in order that they may prosecute."

The Government furnished an opportunity for Crisp to commit the offense, through the agent standing ready to buy the illegal narcotics with official money, but the criminal intent did not originate with the Government.

There are other facts, however, with respect to the defendant Alligood, which we feel necessitate reversal of his case, and the granting to him of a new trial. There was considerable testimony by Alligood, which if believed by a jury under proper instructions on the law of entrapment, might well have established a defense in...