18-year-old Illinois teen Adel Daoud was arrested last Friday for attempting to set off a fake explosive devise set up by the FBI in a sting operation.
Daoud’s defense attorney is now arguing that FBI agents unlawfully lured him into committing the act. Undercover officers allegedly told Daoud that a religious leader from overseas wanted him to perform terroristic acts, despite the fact that Daoud’s own personal religious leader preaches against violence.
According to the affidavit, Daoud met with an undercover agent six times over the summer. They exchanged messages and plotted an attack on a downtown bar (the affidavit did not reveal which bar). Last Friday, Daoud and the officer drove to a parking lot where a Jeep carrying a false explosive was parked. Daoud parked the vehicle outside the bar, walked away, and pressed the false trigger. Officers arrested him immediately afterward.
“The defense attorney in this case seems to be planning to use the entrapment defense,” says Chicago Defense Attorney, Miriam Szatrowski. “Entrapment occurs when police convince a person with no criminal intent and no propensity to commit a particular crime to commit that crime. That is, the person never would have committed the crime on their own, but did it only because the police persuaded them to. In this case, the defense is stating that the police, over a long period of time, talked Daoud into committing a violent act and then provided him with the means to do it. The fact that he is 18 means he is considered an adult, but the defense may still argue that his youth made him more vulnerable to police pressure, and less likely to develop such a plan on his own. If they raise this defense at trial, the State will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was not entrapped in order for him to be found guilty.”
Related Sources:
nbcchicago.com
Illinois Criminal & Civil Defense Blog 