Opinion ID: 720552
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sole Dominant Purpose

Text: 17 Judge Burns instructed the jury that, to prove a violation of § 2251(a), [i]t is not necessary for the government to prove ... that illegal sexual activity, or visual depictions of that activity, was the sole or even the dominant purpose of the minors being transported. It is enough if the evidence shows that illegal sexual activity for the production of visual depictions of that activity was one of the dominant purposes of the trip. She expressly refused to give Sirois's requested instruction that sexual activity had to be the sole dominant purpose for the trip. 18 Sirois relies primarily on Mortensen v. United States, 322 U.S. 369, 64 S.Ct. 1037, 88 L.Ed. 1331 (1944), which overturned the Mann Act conviction of a couple who allowed two prostitutes from their Nebraska bordello to accompany them on a vacation in Utah. The Court held that, in order to prove a violation of the Mann Act, it is essential that the interstate transportation have for its object or be the means of effecting or facilitating the proscribed activities. Id. at 374, 64 S.Ct. at 1040. Because the women did not engage in any prostitution on the trip, the Court overturned the couple's convictions. Sirois draws our attention to a key line in the Supreme Court's opinion: An intention that the women or girls shall engage in the conduct outlawed by [the Mann Act] must be found to exist before the conclusion of the interstate journey and must be the dominant motive of such interstate movement. Id. (emphasis added). 19 But the defense reads too much into Mortensen. In that case, the Court was careful to point out that the only purpose of the Utah trip was to enjoy a vacation. Because the defendants did not claim that they had several purposes in mind, the Court had no occasion to decide whether an illegal purpose had to be exclusive or even paramount. 20 In any event, we reject Sirois's contention that the proscribed activity must be the sole dominant purpose of the transportation. The criminal law applies to everyone, not just the single-minded. And a person who transports children across state lines both to engage in sexual intercourse with them and to photograph that activity is no less a child pornographer simply because he is also a pedophile. 21 Accordingly, we hold that a jury may find a violation of § 2251(a) so long as the evidence shows that illegal sexual activity for the production of visual depictions of that activity was one of the dominant motives for the interstate transportation of the minors, and not merely an incident of the transportation. Accord United States v. Ellis, 935 F.2d 385, 390 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 869, 112 S.Ct. 201, 116 L.Ed.2d 160 (1991); United States v. Drury, 582 F.2d 1181, 1185-86 (8th Cir.1978); United States v. Snow, 507 F.2d 22, 23-24 (7th Cir.1974); Forrest v. United States, 363 F.2d 348, 350-51 (5th Cir.1966), cert. denied, 386 U.S. 995, 87 S.Ct. 1315, 18 L.Ed.2d 343 (1967); Dingess v. United States, 315 F.2d 238, 240 (4th Cir.), cert. dismissed, 373 U.S. 947, 83 S.Ct. 1559, 10 L.Ed.2d 703 (1963); Dunn v. United States, 190 F.2d 496, 497 (10th Cir.1951).