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47 Miss. L.J. 211 (1976)
The Entrapment Defense in Federal Courts: Emergence of a Legal Doctrine

handle is hein.journals/mislj47 and id is 245 raw text is: THE ENTRAPMENT DEFENSE IN FEDERAL COURTS: EMERGENCE OF A LEGAL DOCTRINE Kenneth M. Murchison* The era of national prohibition, which began in 1920, lasted only 13 years.' Although historians differ as to why America attempted legislatively to end the use of alcohol as a beverage,' there can be little doubt that prohibition had a profound effect on the development of federal criminal law.3 In order to capture and punish those who violated * Captain, United States Air Force. B.A. 1969, Louisiana Polytechnic Institute; J.D. 1972, M.A. 1975, University of Virginia. This article is a revised writing of the author's masters thesis. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of the Air Force or any other agency of the United States Government. ' U.S. CONST. amend. XVIII (repealed 1933), U.S. CONST. amend. XXI, § 1. 2 Compare A. SINCLAIR, PROHIBITION: THE ERA OF EXCESS 20 (1962) with P. ODEGARD, PRESSURE POLITICS: THE STORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE 78 (1928). One sociologist has explained the prohibition movement as a manifestation of the status conflict which underlies much of the nation's political strife: Political action has a meaning inherent in what it signifies as well as in what such action actually achieves. . . . Prohibition and Temperance . . . operated as symbolic rather than . . . instrumental goals in American politics. The pas- sage of legislation or the act of public approval of Temperance has been as significant to the activities of the Temperance Movement as has the . . . achievement of an abstinent society. The agitation and struggle of the Temper- ance adherents has been directed toward the establishment of their norms as marks of social and political superiority. J.R. GUSFIELD, SYMBOLIC CRUSADE: STATUS POLITICS AND THE AMERICAN TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT 166 (1963). Other scholars have attributed the ratification of the eighteenth amendment to the war fever that gripped the nation at the time of ratification. See, e.g., A. SINCLAIR, supra at 20. The most plausible assessment of national prohibition, however, regards it as an integral part of the American progressive movement. Like other progressive reformers, advocates of prohibition relied on scientific, religious, social, and economic arguments to support their cause. See generally J.H. TIMBERLAKE, PROHIBITION AND THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 1900-1920 (1963); N. CLARK, THE DRY YEARS: PROHIBITION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN WASHINGTON (1965). Prohibition filled the federal government's antiquated prisons, e.g., A. SINCLAIR, supra note 2, at 212, and increased the caseload of the federal dockets to an unprecedented degree. E.g., C. MERZ, THE DRY DECADE 146, 303 (1931). It also forced lawyers to explain the relation between the eighteenth amendment and the fourth amendment. U.S. CONST. amend. XVIII (repealed 1933), U.S. CONST. amend. XXI, § 1. See, e.g., Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)(electronic wiretaps not controlled by fourth amendment); Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925) (war- rantless search of automobiles permissible when based on probable cause). One commen-

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