Legal Question in Criminal Law in Colorado

Re: crs on entrapment in colorado

18-1-709 - the commission of acts which would otherwise constitute an offense is not criminal if the defendant engaged in the proscribed conduct because he was induced to do so by a law enforcement official or other person acting under his direction, seeking to obtain evidence for the purpose of prosecution, and the methods used to obtain that evidence were such as to create a substantial risk that the acts would be committed by a person who, but for such inducement, would not have conceived of or engaged in conduct of the sort induced.

The biggest hurdle to entrapment as a defense is that often defendants have something on their record that suggests they might have done the thing anyway. this is usually a drug offense defense, but may be a defense for other acts too.

Often, cops will ask a person to help them buy drugs and pay them for it. A person familiar with the drug business in an area may accept money or a piece of the drugs as payment for setting up the sale or usually acting as the go between. The person is then arrested for distribution of drugs, a serious crime, when they might just be a drug user.