Henry E. Pratti v. United States

Convicted on both counts of an indictment charging violations of 21 U.S.C. § 174 , Pratti appeals. The first count charged that Pratti and one Barbara Rodriguez knowingly and unlawfully received, concealed, and facilitated the concealment and transportation, and the sec--ond that the same parties knowingly and unlawfully sold and facilitated the sale to an Undercover Assistant of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, of 10.870 grams of heroin, a narcotic drug, which, as the defendants then and there well knew, previously had been imported into the United States of America contrary to United States Code, Title 21, section 173.

The evidence is sufficient to sustain the conviction. The principal defense was entrapment. We agree with the trial judge that the evidence would permit a jury to find entrapment. It does not, however, require such a finding. In reference to this defense, Pratti’s counsel asked the court to give Mathes’ instruction No. 4.12 ( 27 F.R.D. 84 -85), substantially the same instruction that was given in Notaro v. United States, 9 Cir., 1966, 363 F.2d 169, 173 , except that as given in this case it nowhere referred to the burden of proof. He also requested the following…