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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 36SOCIETYTwo Years in the Life of An "Unwary Innocent"
The Supreme Court bans overzealous sting operations
Keith Jacobson, a Nebraska farmer, received a letter from the
"American Hedonist Society" in 1985 bidding him to join the
organization. In fact, the society was a sting operation of the
Federal Government, which continued to offer Jacobson sexually
explicit material. Jacobson resisted for 26 months, then
finally ordered a magazine called Boys Who Love Boys. He was
quickly hauled into court and convicted of possessing child
pornography. Last week the Supreme Court struck down the
conviction, ruling 5 to 4 that "the government overstepped the
line between setting a trap for the `unwary innocent' and the
`unwary criminal.' " In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor warned that the ruling would hamper law-enforcement
operations. The decision "introduces a new requirement that
government sting operations have a reasonable suspicion of
illegal activity before contacting a suspect."