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FEDERAL SENTENCING GUIDLINES Internet Crime

 

Third Circuit Criticizes Child Porn Sentencing Guidelines
Deconstructing The Sentencing Guidelines
A Case In Point

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The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a New Jersey U.S. District Judge’s decision to impose a sentence of five years rather than the guideline sentence of 235 to 293 months that was requested by the government for a defendant convicted of internet crime child pornography charges. In United States v. Grober, the defendant pled guilty to six child pornography charges. Calling the guidelines “draconian”, the judge instead sentenced the defendant to 60 months imprisonment, the mandatory minimum sentence.

The Third Circuit was deeply concerned about the sentence the government sought to have imposed under the child pornography Guidelines. It recognized, on the one hand, the tension between a mechanical application of those Guidelines and the “outrageously high” sentence – indeed, the “truly remarkable punishment” – of 235-293 months of imprisonment they advised, and, on the other, a fair and reasonable sentence that does justice. Determined to take a long and hard look at the child pornography Guidelines in an effort to understand why Congress and the Sentencing Commission did what they did and whether it made sense both as an objective matter and as to the defendant, the Court embarked on a careful study of how the Guidelines range urged on it by the government came to be.

The Department of Justice appealed the sentence, arguing that the District Court rejected the guidelines without adequately addressing the prosecution’s arguments about the rationales of Congress and the Sentencing Commission, embodied in the guidelines. However, they did not argue that the District Court lacked the authority to disagree with the guidelines on policy grounds, or that the sentence imposed was substantively unreasonable. Upon review, in a 2-1 decision the Third Circuit rejected the government’s appeal, noting widespread dissatisfaction amongst federal judges as the sentencing guidelines for child pornography crimes have grown increasingly harsh.

"Sexting" -- the term given to the phenomenon of teenagers taking nude or semi-nude photographs of themselves with mobile phone cameras and sharing them via picture messaging services.

Sex Offender Registry

Pa. Justices: Internet Child Porn Search Constitutes 'Knowing Possession' In the first Superior Court decision, Judge Richard B. Klein, writing for a three-judge panel, concluded in November 2006 that merely looking at child pornography on the Internet -- without intentionally saving or downloading any images viewed -- does not amount to knowing possession of child pornography as proscribed in Pennsylvania's Crimes and Offenses Code. Actions of operating the computer mouse, locating the Web sites, opening the sites, displaying the images on his computer screen, and then closing the sites were affirmative steps and corroborated his interest and intent to exercise influence over, and, thereby, control over the child pornography," Judge Correale F. Stevens said in the majority opinion.

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