Sparks v. State

MOYLAN, Judge.

The entrapment defense is as modern as Abscam. 1 It is as ancient as the Book of Genesis: “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.” 2 On the merits, it seldom enjoys any more success today than it did in the Garden of Eden. 3 As a generative source of appellate litigation, however, it has been perennially luxuriant.

Although pioneered in the state courts, 4 it first achieved high-profile recognition in 1932 with the Supreme Court decision of Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 53 S.Ct. 210, 77 L.Ed.2d 413. Sorrells and progeny, notwithstanding non-constitutional status, have…