Due Thursday, July 2: Three responses are also due
Case 1:
Thomas Townsend has an embarrassing criminal past.  In 1985, he was convicted of pedophilia, having had sexual relations with a 15-year-old child (at the time, Townsend was 29 years old.)  By all accounts, Townsend has led a relatively uneventful life over the years since 1985, spending most of his time building and selling musical instruments to earn a living, and reclusively “keeping to himself” on his property on the edge of town.

Local police investigators are curious whether Townsend has truly learned from “the error of his ways.”  The local sheriff has received a number of complaints from area citizens, who are appalled that a child sex offender is “among their midst.”  Working in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI,) local police authorities devise and implement a plan to determine whether Thomas is leading an innocent life.  Over the course of an eighteen-month period, police investigators mail Townsend a circular they have created, advertising a fictitious publication called “Lustful Lads and Lasses.”  Among other pronouncements, the circular entices readers to “order now before publication ceases; see young boys and girls aged 12-16 engaged in all sorts of acts only big boys and girls should be allowed to do!”

Having received the circular each month and having declined on seventeen occasions, Townsend finally responds to the circular on the eighteenth occasion, mailing in the $39.95 purchase price.  Local, state, and federal authorities immediately intervene, arresting Townsend for solicitation of child pornographic materials.

At Townsend’s arraignment hearing, his attorney moves for immediate dismissal of the charges, arguing entrapment.  Do the police efforts described constitute entrapment? Does entrapment justify the dismissal of all charges against the accused? Rather than dismissal of charges, why not simply sanction those authorities responsible for the entrapment?

Respond to at least THREE of your peer’s posts.

Rubric: Please do not summarize the case.  Present your views and support them with the law and its definitions.

Grammar/spelling        2
Content – in-depth analysis, defined view outcome and supported by the law and its definitions  8
Three responses in depth        5
Minimum and Maximum word count Wednesday post   200 to 250 words
Minimum and Maximum word count Sunday’s posts   100 to 150 words
All four posts must be completed to earn credit