Goss v. United States, 23257.
| Decision Date | 02 March 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 23257.,23257. |
| Citation | 376 F.2d 812 |
| Parties | Wilbur M. GOSS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Robert B. Thompson, Gainesville, Ga., for appellant.
Floyd M. Buford, U. S. Atty., Tyrus R. Atkinson, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Macon, Ga., for appellee.
Before TUTTLE, Chief Judge, WISDOM, Circuit Judge, and BREWSTER, District Judge.
Wilbur M. Goss, the defendant-appellant, was indicted on eight counts for possessing and selling untaxpaid distilled spirits in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5205(a) (2), 5604(a). He was convicted on six counts relating to three transactions.
The principal defense offered upon the trial was that of entrapment. On appeal, the appellant contends that the trial court erred, as a matter of law, in overruling his motion for a judgment of acquittal based upon the plea of entrapment.
Sorrells v. United States, 1932, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed. 413 and Sherman v. United States, 1958, 356 U.S. 369, 78 S.Ct. 819, 2 L.Fd.2d 848, established the basic principles governing the defense of entrapment. These principles have been followed in a long line of cases in this circuit. See, for example, Demos v. United States, 5 Cir. 1953, 205 F.2d 596; Accardi v. United States, 5 Cir. 1958, 257 F.2d 168; Suarez v. United States, 5 Cir. 1962, 309 F.2d 709. The issue of entrapment is a question for the jury unless as a matter of law the defendant has established beyond a reasonable doubt that he was unlawfully entrapped. The basic question in entrapment is whether the offense originates in the mind of the accused or in the mind of the Government official. For the offense to originate in the mind of a defendant, it is not necessary that the defendant be the instigator of a particular sale or act, but only that he have the general intention to commit such an offense whenever the opportunity is offered. Demos v. United States, 5 Cir. 1953, 205 F.2d 596. Lopez v. United States, 1963, 373 U.S. 427, 83 S.Ct. 1381, 10 L.Ed.2d 462.
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...defense of entrapment is concerned is the manufacturing of crime by law enforcement officials and their agents." Goss v. United States , 376 F.2d 812, 813 (5th Cir. 1967). In other words,[e]ntrapment occurs only when criminal conduct is the product of the creative activity of government off......
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