The Phantom Defense: The Unavailability of the Entrapment Defense in New York City "Plain View

Journal of Law and Policy Volume 21 Issue 1 SYMPOSIUM: Reforming Child Protection Law: A Public Health Approach Article 10 2012 The Phantom Defense: The Unavailability of the Entrapment Defense in New York City "Plain View" Marijuana Arrests Ari Rosmarin Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp Recommended Citation Ari Rosmarin, The Phantom Defense: The Unavailability of the Entrapment Defense in New York City "Plain View" Marijuana Arrests, 21 J. L. & Pol'y (2012). Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol21/iss1/10 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Law and Policy by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. THE PHANTOM DEFENSE: THE UNAVAILABILITY OF THE ENTRAPMENT DEFENSE IN NEW YORK CITY “PLAIN VIEW” MARIJUANA ARRESTS Ari Rosmarin* INTRODUCTION New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) officers stopped a twenty-nine-year-old black truck driver leaving a Bronx housing project one evening. According to the man, [The officers] told me to show them if I had anything illegal. They said if I didn’t have much, there’d be no problem. So I took out the nickel bag and they arrested me. I said ‘Come on, I showed you everything I had,’ but they just put cuffs on me.1 The man was arrested and charged with criminal possession of marijuana in the fifth degree under Section 221.10 of the New * J.D. Candidate, Brooklyn Law School, 2013; B.A., Columbia College, Columbia University, 2006. Thanks are due to the Marijuana Arrest Research Project, the New York Civil Liberties Union, The Bronx Defenders, and other scholars and advocates for their foundational work bringing the scope of unjust New York City marijuana arrests to light. Special thanks also to R.R. for his support and editing eye, and the editors and staff of the Journal of Law and Policy for their input and suggestions. 1 HARRY G. LEVINE & DEBORAH PETERSON SMALL, N.Y. CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, MARIJUANA ARREST CRUSADE: RACIAL BIAS AND POLICE POLICY IN NEW YORK CITY 1997–2007, at 40 (2008), available at http://www.nyclu.org/files/MARIJUANA-ARREST-CRUSADE_Final.pdf. The facts of this arrest, though not extensive, will serve as the basis for further discussion in this Note of how such arrests fit within New York entrapment law. Id.; see also E-mail from Harry Levine to author (Oct. 6, 2012, 14:07 EST) (on file with author). 189 JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY 190 York State Penal Law—possession in a public place burning or open to public view (“MPV”), a B misdemeanor.2 Had the marijuana remained in his pocket, however, prosecutors could have only charged the man with unlawful possession of marijuana under Section 221.05 of the penal law—a nonfingerprintable violation.3 Given the variance between the consequences of the two offenses, it is particularly troubling that criminal defense attorneys in New York City report that police make arrests such as this one with great frequency.4 While attorneys and academics had been concerned about the unprecedented number of low-level marijuana arrests in New York City throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,5 the phenomenon was not comprehensively studied until 2008, when the New York Civil Liberties Union published a report, Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City 1997–2007 (“Marijuana Arrest Crusade”), written by Harry G. Levine and Deborah Peterson Small.6 The report, which 2 N.Y. PENAL LAW § 221.10(1) (McKinney 2008). Id. § 221.05 (“Unlawful possession of marijuana is a violation punishable only by a fine . . . .”); N.Y. CRIM. PROC. LAW § 150.75 (McKinney 2004) (“Whenever the defendant is arrested without a warrant, an appearance ticket shall promptly be issued and served upon him, as provided in this article.”). In limited cases, where the officer cannot determine the arrestee’s identity or residence address or reasonably believes the arrestee has provided a false identification or address, the officer may condition the issuance of the ticket on the arrestee posting pre-arraignment bail. Id. 4 LEVINE & SMALL, supra note 1, at 41. 5 See, e.g., Bernard E. Harcourt & Jens Ludwig, Reefer Madness: Broken Windows Policing and Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests in New York City, 1989–2000, at 1 (John M. Olin Program in Law & Econ., Working Paper No. 317, 2006), available at http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/ files/317.pdf (describing pattern of increased marijuana arrests beginning in 1994); Kevin Flynn, Arrests Soar in Crackdown on Marijuana, N.Y. TIMES (Nov. 17, 1998), http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/17/nyregion/arrests-soarin-crackdown-on-marijuana.html (quoting Legal Aid Society attorney Tony Elichter lamenting the arrest-to-arraignment practices involving marijuana arrestees). 6 LEVINE & SMALL, supra note 1. Harry G. Levine is a professor of sociology at Queens College and the City University of New York Graduate Center. Deborah Peterson Small was the executive director of Break the Chains when the report was published. Id. at 106. 3 THE PHANTOM DEFENSE 191 remains the most extensive analysis of the NYPD’s marijuana arrest practices, brought significant media and advocacy attention to the issue. Advocates used the occasion to designate New York City the “Marijuana Arrest Capital” of the world.7 New York State’s current marijuana laws were enacted in 1977, when the state legislature decriminalized possession of less than 25 grams of marijuana under the Marijuana Reform Act and removed marijuana from the definition of controlled substances.8 The Act sought to “reduce the penalties for possession and sale of marihuana and in particular to ‘decriminalize’ the possession of a small amount of marihuana for personal use.”9 Yet arrests for marijuana possession in New York City have exploded in the past fifteen years. In 2011 alone, the NYPD arrested 50,684 people for section 221.10 offenses—more arrests than the total number of such arrests between 1978 and 1996 combined.10 Criminal possession of marijuana was the most common arrestable offense in 2011.11 This amounts to a 7 Associated Press, NYCLU: City Is World’s ‘Marijuana Arrest Capital,’ N.Y. SUN (Apr. 30, 2008), http://www.nysun.com/new-york/nyclu-city-isworlds-marijuana-arrest-capital/75535/. 8 LEVINE & SMALL, supra note 1, at 60. 9 People v. Allen, 92 N.Y.2d 378, 384 (1998) (quoting William C. Donnino, Practice Commentary, N.Y. PENAL LAW § 221.00 (McKinney 2008)). 10 Andy Newman, Marijuana Arrests Rose in 2011, Despite Police Directive, NYTIMES.COM (Feb. 1, 2012, 4:03 PM), http://cityroom.blogs. nytimes.com/2012/02/01/low-level-marijuana-arrests-rise-for-seventh-straightyear/. The misdemeanor arrests referred to in this article are arrests under Penal Law section 221.10(1). In order for one to be convicted under section 221.10, one must either possess marijuana in a public place (“MPV”), PENAL LAW § 221.10(1), or possess between 25 grams and 56.7 grams, o (...truncated)