United States v. Russell
United States Supreme Court
411 U.S. 423 (1973)
Relevant factsFree
Russell (defendant) was investigated for manufacturing methamphetamine, and an undercover agent provided him with a hard-to-obtain chemical component used in the manufacturing process. The jury received a standard entrapment instruction and convicted Russell on all charges; the court of appeals held the undercover investigation amounted to entrapment as a matter of law and vacated the conviction, prompting the government's petition for review.
IssueFree
Whether a government agent's supplying a legally obtainable, hard-to-find chemical ingredient necessary to manufacture methamphetamine amounts to entrapment as a matter of law, where the defendant could have obtained the ingredient elsewhere.