United States v. Jack Pardue and Michel Pardue

Jack Pardue made three motions for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 alleging entrapment as a matter of law and outrageous government conduct. The trial court denied the first two motions, made first at the close of the government’s case in chief and then at the close of all the evidence, but granted Pardue’s renewed third motion after the jury had found defendant Jack Pardue guilty of two felonies in a murder-for-hire scheme. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 29(c). The trial court, in its third look at the motions, found both entrapment as a matter of law and…