8 - Entrapment

Summary

And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.”

Genesis 3:13

Human nature is weak enough and sufficiently beset by temptations without government adding to them and generating crime.

Justice Felix Frankfurter

Keith Jacobson, a middle-aged bachelor, lived with and looked after his parents in a small Midwestern rural town, where he drove a school bus. In February 1984 Jacobson made a mail-order purchase of two nudist magazines, Bare Boys I & II and an advertising brochure, from Electric Moon, a Californian distributor of pornographic materials. At the time he purchased these materials, it may have been legal for him to do so. Soon after, however, the laws relating to the distribution of child pornography through the mails were tightened up. Federal agents raided Electric Moon, and, using a mailing list they found, commenced a sting operation against people whom they suspected might be violating the laws relating to pedophilia and child pornography. In Keith Jacobson's case, the sting operation consisted of five separate ventures, engaged in over a period of almost two and a half years, and involving eleven “approaches.” In the first of these ventures, a letter and invitation was sent from an organization calling itself the “American Hedonist Society.” The AHS purported to be ideologically committed to pleasure and happiness as the sole goods in life. A survey and membership application were enclosed, along with advertisements. Jacobson filled out a membership, and indicated his interest in materials depicting preteen sex.