Opinion ID: 169725
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidentiary Sufficiency: Receipt and Possession Convictions

Text: Keeping in mind our holding that proof of use of the Internet, standing alone, does not satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of §§ 2252(a)(2) and (a)(4)(B), we now separately analyze the sufficiency of the government's evidence concerning Mr. Schaefer's receipt and possession convictions. These convictions cannot stand because the government failed to present sufficient evidence concerning the movement of the child-pornography images across state lines. [10]
As to the receipt count, we agree with Mr. Schaefer that the government needed to prove the visual images he received on his computer via the Internet moved across state lines. Because the government provided no relevant evidence to meet this essential element, the conviction cannot stand. More specifically, unlike Kimler, Wilson, Simpson, or Kammersell, the government offered no evidence here on: (1) the server locations of the websites that Mr. Schaefer searched; or (2) the server location of Mr. Schaefer's Internet service provider. Nor did the government travel down any of the myriad other conceivable paths of proof to establish the movement of the pornographic images across state lines. Accordingly, we must conclude that insufficient evidence exists to support Mr. Schaefer's conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2).
Similarly, the government's proof is insufficient regarding the possession count. The government points to several facts to support its position: first, the evidence that Mr. Schaefer visited Internet sites that sold child pornography, and downloaded child pornography to his computer; second, the evidence that the CDs found in his possession were technically capable of accepting downloaded materials ( i.e., they were rewritable); and third, the CDs, among other things, contained foreign-language movie clips of child pornography that were embedded with Internet website addresses, and an image of a young girl, who presumably had her image on the Internet because she was familiar to law enforcement from other child pornography investigations. The government maintains that this evidence was sufficient to establish the interstate commerce element because it permitted a reasonable fact-finder to determine that the images of child pornography on the CDs were obtained from the Internet. For the reasons discussed above, however, the government's arguments are based upon a faulty legal premise: it was not enough for the government to prove that the child-pornography images on the CDs were obtained from the Internet. The government needed to prove that the images on the CDs moved between states. Even if we analyze the government's arguments under the correct legal framework, the government's proof was virtually non-existent on this point. In this connection, our Wilson decision is instructive. See Wilson, 182 F.3d at 744. Mr. Wilson was prosecuted under § 2252(a)(4)(B). A government agent testified at trial that some of the child-pornography images found on computer disks in Mr. Wilson's possession originated from a German magazine. We concluded that this testimony, standing alone, was insufficient to satisfy the statute's jurisdictional nexus. Id. We reasoned that the government must prove that the specific images ended up on the disks through a movement in interstate commerce. In this regard, we stated: [The government agent] offered no explanation . . . as to how those particular images found their way to the diskettes in defendant's possession. Nor did the prosecution otherwise attempt to outline the possible methods by which defendant could have obtained the files through interstate commerce (e.g., obtaining copies of the German magazines and scanning the images into his computer; downloading copies of the images from an out-of-state computer via the Internet . . . etc.). Id. (emphasis added). Likewise, even if we assume arguendo that the images appearing in the foreign-language movie clips and the image of the young girl originated outside of the State of Kansas (like the images from the German magazine in Wilson ), the government offered no proof that the particular images on the CDs in question moved across state lines. In particular, the government offered no proof that Mr. Schaefer accessed the images through an interstate Internet connection and either downloaded them directly to the CDs or downloaded them to his computer and later transferred them to the CDs. [11] Accordingly, we must conclude that the government's jurisdictional proof regarding the possession count was insufficient to support Mr. Schaefer's conviction.