It may surprise you to learn that some defenses are not allowed when charged with a crime. Affirmative defenses, where you affirm that the crime occurred but introduce evidence that negates criminal liability, are often considered some of the riskier approaches to criminal charges. One such affirmative defense is entrapment.
Here, you are alleging that the crime occurred specifically because you were entrapped by law enforcement officials into committing a crime. You are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but with entrapment, your defense team will have the evidentiary burden to prove based on a preponderance of the evidence that entrapment occurred. Here is more about what Indiana’s entrapment law says and what to expect if your criminal defense team recommends this defense in your case.
What Does the Statute for Entrapment Say in Indiana?
If you are interested in using the entrapment defense, it is important to understand when this defense strategy is appropriate. Under IC. 35-41-3-9, entrapment allegations may apply if your actions were the direct product of a law enforcement agency or a police officer that caused you to engage in criminal activity. You must not have been predisposed to commit the crime for entrapment to apply. It is important to note that giving you an opportunity to commit a crime does not constitute entrapment under the law.
Government Involvement
A government agency or police officer must be involved for the entrapment defense to be accepted in a court of law. Law enforcement officers must have induced the crime, and you must have been predisposed to commit the offense in question. If you were predisposed, your entrapment defense may fail. According to Matthews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58, 63 (1988), a defendant may be considered predisposed to commit a crime if they were “an unwary innocent, or, instead, an unwary criminal who readily availed himself of the opportunity to perpetrate the crime.”
The Opportunity to Commit a Crime
Simply giving you an opportunity to commit a crime is not grounds for an entrapment defense. You must be forced to commit a crime for the entrapment claim to have merit. We see this often in undercover and sting operations, especially in drug crime cases. Unless the law enforcement officials were harassing, urging, or overly encouraging you to commit a criminal offense when you would not have otherwise done so, the mere opportunity is not enough to successfully argue the entrapment defense.
Is It Entrapment?
While you may clearly believe you were tricked into committing a crime by the police, whether there are grounds for an entrapment defense will vary widely based on the specific circumstances of your case. For instance, if police set up a sting operation to arrest someone for committing a child exploitation offense online, they may create fake profiles on popular platforms and engage with would-be offenders. If the people they were communicating with then attempted to meet up with them, despite being under the impression that the person they were chatting with was a minor, entrapment would not apply, as there was no coercion or threats made.
However, if the police, while pretending to be minors, chat with a would-be offender, threaten to reveal the offender’s identity or report them to the police if they do not, for example, entrapment may apply. Since proving entrapment can be particularly challenging, it is essential to have a powerful criminal defense team on your side that can explore every potential opportunity to clear your name and is not afraid to raise an entrapment defense where appropriate.