Sherman v. United States
| Sherman v. United States | |
|---|---|
| Argued January 16, 1958 Decided May 19, 1958 | |
| Full case name | Sherman v. United States |
| Citations | 356 U.S. 369 (more) 78 S. Ct. 819; 2 L. Ed. 2d 848; 1958 U.S. LEXIS 1024 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Defendant convicted; conviction reversed, Second Circuit, 200 F.2d 880; defendant convicted after retrial; conviction affirmed, 240 F.2d 949; certiorari granted, 353 U.S. 935. |
| Subsequent | Conviction reversed |
| Holding | |
| Government cannot overcome entrapment defense by dissociating itself from informant's conduct; prior related offenses not sufficient to demonstrate predisposition to commit crime if they occurred long before investigation began. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Warren, joined by Black, Burton, Clark, Whittaker |
| Concurrence | Frankfurter, joined by Douglas, Harlan, Brennan |
| Laws applied | |
| Statutory construction of entrapment | |
English Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Sherman v. United States, 356 U.S. 369 (1958), was a United States Supreme Court case on the issue of entrapment. Unanimously, the Court overturned the conviction of a recovering New York drug addict who had been repeatedly solicited for drug sales by a fellow former addict who was working with federal agents.
The case was a virtual replay of Sorrells v. United States, the 1932 case in which the justices had first recognized entrapment as a defense. As in that case, all agreed the defendant had been entrapped, but the majority and a separate concurrence were at odds over what the best grounding for the entrapment defense was.