JAMES PATRICK LAWRENCE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE; RONALD BOURGOIN, APPELLANT, V. STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE; JOHN MITCHELL, APPELLANT, V. STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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The court held that the remedy for police misconduct lies in prosecuting the police, not freeing the equally culpable defendant.
An undercover agent sold marijuana to the appellants in separate transactions. The appellants moved to dismiss the charges, alleging unconscionable mi…
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PER CURIAM.
By these consolidated appeals appellants seek review of the denial of their motions to dismiss, following which denial they each entered a plea of nolo contendere, reserving their right to appeal.
William Weaver, an undercover agent for the First Circuit Narcotics Investigation Unit, sold each of the appellants in three separate unrelated transactions one pound of marijuana. By their motion to dismiss the defendants urged unconscionable misconduct, abuse of prosecutorial discretion and violations of due process and equal protection. It is important to note that appellants do not rely upon the defense of entrapment.
Whether or not agent Weaver’s conduct is protected by F.S. 893.09(5) we need not determine. Clearly each of the defendants were guilty of unlawful possession of mari juana and they do not claim to have been entrapped. Neither does the record reveal that the state has infringed upon their constitutional rights. As stated in Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484, 96 S.Ct. 1646, 48 L.Ed.2d 113 (1976).
“ * * * If the police engage in illegal activity in concert with a defendant beyond the scope of their duties the remedy lies, not in freeing the equally culpable defendant, but in prosecuting the police under the applicable provisions of state or federal law. * * * ” (Citations omitted: 96 S.Ct. at page 1650).
AFFIRMED.
McCORD, C. J., BOYER, J., and McLANE, RALPH M., Associate Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Cited By
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State v. Boyce E. Glosson, 441 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983)…that the officials exceeded the bounds of propriety or, for that matter, even engaged in illegal conduct, the result should not be that admittedly guilty defendants go free. This Court has so recognized in a similar situation. In Lawrence v. State, 357 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), the undercover agent sold the defendants a pound of marijuana. The defendants appealed the trial court’s denial of their motion to dismiss on the grounds of “unconscionable misconduct, abuse of prosecutorial discretion and viola…
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Marshall v. State, 449 So. 2d 1306 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)…dged in a nolo contendere plea before the trial court and which readily could have been established even in the absence of the aforesaid misconduct. See Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484, 96 S.Ct. 1646, 48 L.Ed.2d 113 (1976); Lawrence v. State, 357 So. 2d 424 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), cert. denied, 367 So. 2d 1125 (Fla. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 847, 100 S.Ct. 94, 62 L.Ed.2d 61 (1979). AFFIRMED. ORFINGER, C.J., and LEE, R.E., Associate Judge, concur.…
Authorities Cited
- Hampton v. United States, 425 U.S. 484 (U.S. 1976)