In today's Virginia-Pilot on line, an informative article addressing the issue "Are cybercops setting up high-tech entrapments for fantasizing adults? Or are they members of new-age vice squads, patrolling a virtual red-light district where predators roam 24/7?"

"Civil libertarians worry that the government is not only entrapping otherwise law-abiding citizens but also invading the minds and computers of people who have little or no intention of acting on their private fantasies."

We're on the side of the civil libertarians and were quoted in the article, written by reporter Jon Frank:

Jeralyn Merritt, a spokesman for the Washington-based National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the government should not invade personal computers. ``If the person never left their living room and never intended to, but merely was engaging in fantasy and role playing on the Internet, should that be a crime?'' Merritt said. "

The defendant in the case was found guilty of proposing indecent liberties with a minor and faces up to a ten year sentence. His criminal conduct consisted of insta-messaging with a person he thought was a 15 year old in a chat room, but who turned out to be a 44 year old male agent.

"Close to 1,000 cases are prosecuted annually in the United States, Kerr said. Most of them, he said, end up in federal court, where penalties are stiffer and interstate crimes are more easily prosecuted. Because these investigations tend to be conducted by police officers working solely in cyberspace, state lines are insignificant, Kerr said. Perpetrators may be far away from the investigators who catch them."

According to Frank's article, the two issues raised most often on appeal are that since the investigator is an adult, there has been no crime committed. This has been almost "universally rejected."

The second issue -- entrapment -- has been marginally more successful.

A law professor, Orin Kerr, states that ``As long as the cops remain passive targets, I am not too worried'' about civil rights being trampled." Of course, we had a different take on it:

But Merritt of the defense lawyers group said electronic entrapments threaten basic liberties. ``The job of law enforcement is to police crimes, not to patrol private thoughts,'' she said. ``The places one visits on the Internet in the privacy of his own home should be protected. We need to avoid a `one click and you're guilty' standard of justice.''

[one note: we are an Officer of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Our extremely talented and capable Media Affairs Director is Dan Dodson, dodson@nacdl.org, or 202-872-8600 × 228]