Arizona v. Gray
Annotate this CaseAn undercover police officer approached Gray at a bus stop and, in a secretly-recorded conversation, asked if Gray could help him get some crack cocaine. Gray agreed to obtain 20 dollars’ worth of cocaine for a 10-dollar fee. The officer drove with Gray to an apartment complex and gave him 20 dollars; Gray left the car and returned 10 minutes later with the cocaine. The officer gave him the fee. Gray was arrested and charged with sale of narcotics. Gray requested a jury instruction on the entrapment defense, A.R.S. 13-206, which requires a defendant to “admit by [his] testimony or other evidence the substantial elements of the offense charged.” Concluding that Gray had not admitted these elements, the trial court refused. The jury found Gray guilty and the trial court sentenced him to 9.25 years in prison. The court of appeals and Arizona Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting Gray’s argument that his recorded statements were “other evidence” sufficient to show that he affirmatively admitted the substantial elements of the charged offense. A defendant cannot invoke the affirmative defense merely by declining to challenge the state’s evidence, even when it includes incriminating statements made by the defendant to an undercover officer.
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