Jacobson v. United States
Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540 (1992), is a case decided by the United States Supreme Court regarding the criminal procedure topic of entrapment. A narrowly divided court overturned the conviction of a Nebraska man for receiving child pornography through the mail, ruling that postal inspectors had implanted a desire to do so through repeated written entreaties.
| Jacobson v. United States | |
|---|---|
Supreme Court of the United States | |
| Argued November 6, 1991 Decided April 6, 1992 | |
| Full case name | Keith Jacobson, Petitioner v. United States |
| Citations | 503 U.S. 540 (more) 112 S. Ct. 1535; 118 L. Ed. 2d 174; 1992 U.S. LEXIS 2117; 60 U.S.L.W. 4307; 92 Cal. Daily Op. Service 2901; 92 Daily Journal DAR 4584; 6 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 166 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Defendant convicted, United States District Court for the District of Nebraska; Conviction reversed United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 893 F.2d 999 (8th Cir. 1990); Conviction affirmed, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, 916 F.2d 467 (8th Cir. 1990) (en banc); certiorari granted, 499 U.S. 974 (1991). |
| Subsequent | Conviction reversed |
| Holding | |
| The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant was predisposed to commit a crime prior to any contact with government agents in order to overcome entrapment defense; defendant's prior commission of acts later prohibited that were legal at the time did not establish evidence of predisposition sufficient to overcome entrapment defense where no evidence existed of commission of crimes independent of solicitation to do so by agents. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | White, joined by Blackmun, Stevens, Souter, Thomas |
| Dissent | O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, Kennedy; Scalia (except part II) |
| Laws applied | |
| Entrapment case law | |
It was the first time the court had considered an entrapment case from outside the realm of controlled-substance enforcement, or one involving conduct that had only recently been criminalized. By relying exclusively on whether the defendant had a predisposition to commit the crime, the court appeared to have finally resolved a lingering issue in its previous decisions on the subject.
The decision was seen as a rare triumph for defendants before a conservative court that frequently sided with prosecutors. Guidelines for federal law enforcement agents were changed in its wake, and it was described as having brought entrapment "back from the dead."