United States v. Ulysses Johnny Hicks

Ulysses Johnny Hicks was convicted of transferring about 24.80 grams of cocaine, a narcotic drug, without obtaining a written order form from the transferee, a violation of 26 U.S.C. § 4705 (a) [Count I] and transporting and concealing about 496.53 grams of cocaine, knowing that the narcotic had been imported into the United States contrary to law, a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 174 [Count II].

On this appeal he contends that the judge should have conducted a “pretrial hearing” on the issue of entrapment. As we understand his argument, it is in substance that due process requires that the judge, at the very least, make an in camera preliminary determination that there was no entrapment before submitting that issue to a jury. He cites no authority for this proposition, but relies for support upon cases such as Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368 , 84 S.Ct. 1774 , 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964), which outline an approved procedure to be followed where a question arises concerning the voluntariness of a confession.

We reject his contention.

The two rules rest upon different substantive bases and involve different basic considerations which render them non-analogous to each other. Moreover, we have…