Title: Girard v. State
Citation: 883 So. 2d 717
Docket Number: 1020889
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: December 30, 2003

883 So. 2d 717 (2003)
Ex parte State of Alabama.
(In re David A. GIRARD
v.
STATE of Alabama).
1020889.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
December 30, 2003.
*718 William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen., and Robin Blevins Scales and G. Ward Beeson III, asst. attys. gen., for petitioner.
Submitted on petitioner's brief only.
HARWOOD, Justice.
David A. Girard was indicted on May 23, 2001, for 26 counts of possessing obscene matter, violations of § 13A-12-192(b), Ala.Code 1975, and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a violation of § 12-15-13, Ala.Code 1975.[1] Girard's trial began on October 10, 2001. After the State had presented its case-in-chief, the trial court granted Girard's motion for a judgment of acquittal on counts 2 through 6, 14, and 17 through 26, leaving pending 10 counts of possession of obscene matter. On October 11, 2001, the jury found Girard guilty of all 10 counts. On November 14, 2001, the trial court sentenced Girard to 10 years in prison on each count, but "split" the sentence and ordered Girard to serve 3 years in prison followed by 5 years on probation. The trial court ordered that Girard's sentences were to run concurrently.
Girard appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals. That court reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause for the trial court to vacate all but one of the convictions and sentences. Girard v. State, 883 So. 2d 714 (Ala.Crim.App.2002). The State filed an application for a rehearing on December 6, 2002, and the Court of Criminal Appeals denied rehearing on February 14, 2003. The State then petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari to the Court of Criminal Appeals. We granted the State's petition to address what constitutes a "unit of prosecution" under Ala.Code 1975, § 13A-12-192(b), the statute barring the possession of "any obscene matter containing a visual reproduction of a person under the age of 17 years," an issue we have not previously specifically addressed.
*719 The interpretation of a statute involves a question of law and an appellate court reviews a trial court's interpretation de novo, without any presumption of correctness. Simcala, Inc. v. American Coal Trade, Inc., 821 So. 2d 197 (Ala.2001). "`[O]n appeal, the ruling on a question of law carries no presumption of correctness, and this Court's review is de novo.' Ex parte Graham, 702 So. 2d 1215, 1221 (Ala.1997)." Rogers Found. Repair, Inc. v. Powell, 748 So. 2d 869, 871 (Ala.1999).
The Court of Criminal Appeals set out the following summary of the pertinent facts:
883 So. 2d  at 714-15.
The record reveals that Girard met a young male ("C.L.") in an Internet chat room in May 2000. C.L., who was 18 years old at the time of the trial in May 2002, testified that "a couple of times" Girard sent him "pictures of nude kids." C.L. testified that he subsequently visited Girard and that he "brought discs that contained pictures of what [Girard] had sent to me." Soon after C.L. left his home to visit Girard, his parents filed a missing person's report, and Brian Middleton, a police investigator, testified that the report stated "that [C.L.] was possibly with Mr. Girard." C.L. testified that after he learned that his parents had filed a missing person's report, he went to the police station because he "wanted to clear up the missing person's report." Middleton testified that while C.L. was at the police station, he "indicated to me that he was in possession of the disc that he admitted to be child pornography." Middleton stated that C.L. did not have the discs with him at the police station, rather "[t]hey were in Mr. Girard's possession." Thereafter, Middleton obtained a warrant to search Girard's house.
In its order reversing the judgment of the trial court, the Court of Criminal Appeals stated, in relevant part:
883 So. 2d  at 715-17.
In its brief filed in support of its petition for the writ of certiorari, the State argues that "[t]he plain language of Alabama's statute prohibiting the possession of child pornography indicates that the unit of prosecution is each obscene image possessed by the defendant." The State explains in its brief:
The State cites King v. State, 674 So. 2d 1381 (Ala.Crim.App.1995), in support of its argument. In King, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that § 13A-12-200.2(1), Ala.Code 1975, part of the Alabama Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act, authorizes the prosecution of each distributed item that qualifies as obscene material pursuant to the statute. The court explained that "[e]very item listed" in the statute's definition of "material" "is singular" and that "[i]f the legislature intended for violations based on transactions instead of individual items distributed, it could have indicated that each item ... could also be plural." 674 So. 2d  at 1383. The State argues in its brief that "[t]he court based its holding on its interpretation of the term `material' in Ala.Code [1975,] § 13A-12-200.1(2),[2] which is analogous to the term `matter' in the child pornography statute in Ala.Code [1975,] § 13A-12-190(12)." Section 13A-12-190(12) defines "matter" as:
As opposed to the definition of material found at § 13A-12-200.1(15), Ala.Code 1975,[3] and discussed in King, supra, the definition of matter at § 13A-12-190(12), Ala.Code 1975, does include the plural of some terms. Also the statute at issue in this petition, § 13A-12-192, criminalizes the possession of obscene matter, while the statute at issue in King, § 13A-12-200.2, criminalized the distribution of obscene material.
Further, other statutes that address the crime of possession criminalize the act of possession, regardless of how many items the offender actually possessed. For example, § 13A-7-8, Ala.Code 1975, provides:
(Emphasis supplied.) Section 13A-7-44, Ala.Code 1975, addresses the criminal possession of explosives and provides:
(Emphasis supplied.) Similarly, § 13A-7-28, Ala.Code 1975, addresses the criminal possession of noxious substances and states:
(Emphasis supplied.)
These statutes use language similar to that of § 13A-12-192(b), Ala.Code 1975, which provides:
(Emphasis supplied.)
Correspondingly, in McKinney v. State, 511 So. 2d 220, 224 (Ala.1987), this Court explained that "legislative intent to allow multiple prosecutions for a single act that injures more than one person is determined by the `description of the unit of prosecution within the substantive criminal law statutes.'" (Quoting R. Owens, Alabama's Minority Status: A Single Criminal Act Injuring Multiple Persons Constitutes Only a Single Offense, 16 Cum.L.Rev. 85, 104 (1985-86).) This Court then quoted the following from Owens:
511 So. 2d  at 224-25 (quoting Owens, 16 Cum.L.Rev. at 105-06).
Accordingly, we conclude that proper unit of prosecution for the offense of possession of obscene matter under § 13A-12-192(b), Ala.Code 1975, is the possession of the obscene matter, regardless of how many items are actually possessed.
*724 Therefore, the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the cause for the trial court to vacate all but one of the convictions and sentences. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
AFFIRMED.
HOUSTON, SEE, LYONS, BROWN, JOHNSTONE, WOODALL, and STUART, JJ., concur.
[1]  The trial court transferred the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor to the Baldwin Juvenile Court after the State's opening statement. That charge was not considered further in the proceedings that gave rise to this petition.
[2]  That definition now appears at § 13A-12-200.1(15), Ala.Code 1975.
[3]  Section 13A-12-200.1(15), Ala.Code 1975, defines "material" as:

"Any book, magazine, newspaper, printed or written matter, writing, description, picture, drawing, animation, photograph, motion picture, film, video tape, pictorial representation, depiction, image, electrical or electronic reproduction, broadcast, transmission, telephone communication, sound recording, article, device, equipment, matter, oral communication, live performance, or dance."