Freeman

(after stating the facts as above). [1, 2] It is contended that the writing and mailing of the letters which are set out in the indictment were not criminal, and do not constitute crimes, for the reason that the letters were solicited by the United States post office inspectors in letters written by them and sent through the mails to Dr. Jordan as decoy letters, that the government officers initiated the crime, and that the case is thereby brought within the principle of the decisions of this court in Woo Wai v. United States, 223 Fed. 414 , 137 C. C. A. 604 , and Sam Yick v. United States, 240 Fed. 60 , - C. C. A. -. The ruling in each of the cases so referred to was based upon the ground that the government officers had suggested the crime and induced its commission, and that the offense did not have its origin in the mind of the accused. The distinction between those cases and the case at bar is plain. Here the accused was suspected of being engaged in using the mails in a scheme to defraud. It was to ascertain whether such was the case, and not to suggest the commission of a crime which otherwise would not have been committed, that the decoy letters were written. The case…