Opinion ID: 2818183
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Images of Actual Children

Text: Finally, Figueroa claims that the government failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the still images and videos contained depictions of actual children engaged in sexually explicit activity. In a child pornography case, [t]he prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the image is of an actual child in order to establish guilt. United States v. RodriguezPacheco, 475 F.3d 434, 439 (1st Cir. 2007). However, [t]here is no per se rule that the prosecution is required to produce expert testimony in every case to establish that the depicted child is -18- real, for either guilt or sentencing purposes. United States v. Hoey, 508 F.3d 687, 691 (1st Cir. 2007). Rather, juries are capable of distinguishing between real and virtual images, without expert assistance. Rodriguez-Pacheco, 475 F.3d at 441. In the instant case, the prosecutors showed the jury eighteen still images and seven videos of alleged child pornography found on Figueroa's computer. Despite the fact that it was not required to do so, the government also presented expert testimony that the images and videos contained actual minors. Agent Colón, who had performed computer forensics work in dozens of child pornography cases, testified that he found 18 images and 7 videos that contained minors in lasciv[i]ous exhibition of the genitalia on Figueroa's computer. Lieutenant Lang, who had investigated hundreds of child pornography cases, examined the files associated with Figueroa's IP address and stated, Yes, that's definitely child pornography. He testified that he recognized one of the videos associated with Figueroa's IP address because he had previously seen the video in another child pornography case, which had an identified victim and was a bad piece of child pornography. The images and videos introduced into evidence, in conjunction with the testimony of two experts, were sufficient for a rational jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the files on Figueroa's computer depicted images of actual children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. -19- For all of the reasons stated above, Figueroa's sufficiency of the evidence argument fails.9