Understanding Entrapment: When Police Tactics Cross the Line in Delaware Criminal Cases

While most folks expect law enforcement to investigate crimes, gather evidence, and arrest suspects when there is probable cause, what many people don’t know is that there are limits to how far law enforcement officials can go in encouraging or facilitating crime. If law enforcement officials go too far, the defendant has a legitimate defense known as entrapment.

Entrapment is a very complex and often misunderstood legal issue, but in the right circumstances, it is a powerful legal tool in a Delaware criminal defense case.

What is entrapment? 

Entrapment is when law enforcement officers or their agents provoke a person to commit a crime they would not have been predisposed to commit in the first place. The issue here is not whether or not law enforcement was involved, but whether or not they caused the crime rather than finding it.

In Delaware, the court will look at whether or not a person was unfairly persuaded, pressured, or manipulated into committing a crime that they would not otherwise have committed but for law enforcement’s coaxing.

Offering someone an opportunity to commit a crime is not entrapment, but pressuring someone to commit a crime generally is.

Common examples of entrapment 

Typical scenarios that involve entrapment claims include:

• Repeated requests or pressures by an undercover officer after the suspect has refused the first time
• Promises of gain or satisfaction, or the alleviation of hardship
• Appeals to sympathy, friendship, or emotional weakness
• Increasing the severity of a crime beyond what was originally agreed upon

To illustrate, if police repeatedly ask a suspect to sell drugs after the suspect refused several times, or if police appeal to the suspect’s personal circumstances to gain cooperation, a court may rule that police entrapped the suspect.

What entrapment is not

A lot of folks confuse entrapment with lawful undercover work. The defense does not apply if:

• The defendant was already willing to commit the crime
• The idea for the crime came from the defendant
• The police were only observing or participating in criminal activity without coercion
• The police posed as a buyer or seller without undue pressure

If someone seems too eager to commit a crime or seems familiar with criminal activity, it is less likely that entrapment has occurred. 

How to prove your entrapment defense 

For the entrapment defense to be raised, the facts must be analyzed, including any recordings, text messages, witness testimony, and police reports. The defense usually looks for the following:

• Who came up with the idea for the crime
• How hard the police were pressing the case
• Whether the defendant resisted or had second thoughts about the crime
• Whether the defendant had a prior criminal record or not

These cases are usually close calls, making legal representation early in the case particularly important.

Talk to a Wilmington, DE, Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

If you’ve been charged with a serious crime, call the Wilmington criminal defense attorneys at the Law Office of Michael W. Modica. We can help prepare your defense or negotiate a plea that you can live with.