Opinion ID: 2960846
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Images and Video Clips

Text: The government proposed to show the jury 14 images and 22 video clips of child pornography located on Evans’s media devices—36 items total. Evans had already stipulated that his media devices contained child pornography, and he asked the court to allow the government to show no more than 3 images and limit the time they were shown to the jury to approximately 10 seconds per image. The objection, as articulated by defense counsel outside the presence of the jury, was that it was “unnecessary and cumulative to show more than approximately three images, that it would also I think have a tendency to confuse and possibly just create such an emotional reaction in the members of the jury that it would be impossible for Mr. Evans to get a fair trial here.” Defense counsel also asserted it was “unnecessary to traumatize the jury by requiring them to watch more than three of these images.” The district court overruled Evans’s objection, and allowed the introduction of the government’s proposed 14 images and 22 video clips. On appeal, Evans argues that the district court erred by failing to conduct the balancing analysis—comparing the probative value of the proffered images and video clips to the danger of an unfairly prejudicial effect, as well as the relative probative value and prejudicial effect of evidentiary alternatives—required by Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Evans does not dispute that the images and video clips are probative. Instead, he asserts that “[s]howing the jury actual images was simply cumulative and, due to their obvious and unavoidable emotional impact, unduly prejudicial.” Evans also argues that the court failed to consider his stipulation that the media devices -3- contained depictions of child pornography3 and the option of presenting fewer images or only the file names to the jury. The admission of this evidence by the district court is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Battle, 774 F.3d 504, 511 (8th Cir. 2014). When addressing Evans’s objection, the district court considered the number of images and video clips the government sought to show to the jury,4 as well as the amount of time the jury would be exposed to them. The district court noted that it would take approximately 5 minutes to show the 14 images and 22 video clips to the jury. During a portion of that time, the jury saw only the file name preceding the image or video clip.5 The court also took into consideration the impact this evidence may have on the jury, recognizing the legitimate goal of “trying to spare the jury the trauma.” Ultimately, the court concluded there was “no risk of any sort of undue delay or cumulative evidence being presented,” and stated that “it strikes me that this number of images is within the range of what would be appropriate.” Despite Evans’s assertion otherwise, the district court did conduct a Rule 403 analysis before 3 To the extent Evans argues that his stipulation alone precludes the introduction of any images or video clips, his argument is foreclosed by our precedent. See United States v. Worthey, 716 F.3d 1107, 1114 (8th Cir. 2013) (holding the court does “not prohibit publication of child pornography video clips to the jury over the defendant’s offer to stipulate to their content”). 4 The government argued, and the district court considered, the fact that only 36 files were shown to the jury from over 24,000 child pornography files found in Evans’s possession. We note, however, that there is no proportionality test for determining whether a set number of images and/or videos may properly be shown to a jury under Rule 403. To apply a purely mathematical test would be to ignore the importance of considering the nature of the particular evidence as well as any effect showing the evidence may have on the jury’s ability to be fair and impartial. 5 File names themselves can be disturbing, as they sometimes describe in detail the contents of the image or video of child pornography. However, Evans does not assert that the file names shown to the jury were impermissibly inflammatory. -4- ruling on his objection. See United States v. McCourt, 468 F.3d 1088, 1092 (8th Cir. 2006) (“While [the district court may not have conducted] a lengthy analysis, “‘the district court’s mere failure to make a record of its Rule 403 weighing is not reversible error’”).6 Furthermore, while Evans argues that the district court abused its discretion when allowing the government to show these images and video clips, he does not articulate what unfair prejudice resulted from the publication of this evidence to the jury. See McCourt, 468 F.3d at 1092 (“[T]he Supreme Court has advised that Rule 403 requires a preliminary showing of unfair prejudice before the need to balance the probative value of the evidence and its alternatives arises.”). Images and videos depicting child pornography are by their very nature disturbing, and viewing such depictions is highly likely to generate an emotional response. But that alone cannot be the reason to exclude the evidence. See McCourt, 468 F.3d at 1092 (“‘[Rule 403] does not offer protection against evidence that is merely prejudicial in the sense of being detrimental to a party’s case. The rule protects against evidence that is unfairly prejudicial.’” (quoting United States v. Johnson, 463 F.3d 803, 809 (8th Cir. 2006))). An excessive number of, or particularly inflammatory, depictions indeed might amount to unfair prejudice. But Evans does not argue that the images and video clips shown were not representative of the type of materials found on his media devices. Nor does he allege that the government selected particularly graphic images or video 6 We note that the government did not articulate why it chose the particular images and video clips that it did. Had the government done so, the district court would have been in a position to conduct a more fact-specific and better-informed balancing analysis. The only argument the government provided at trial was that it needed to show the jury that some of the files did, in fact, contain images or videos depicting child pornography, even though the files were mislabeled. The government did not elaborate on this theme, however, and it is not clear on appeal whether the images and video clips shown to the jury were the ones the government asserts were mislabeled. -5- clips, the nature of which might have unnecessarily inflamed the jury or aroused emotions the jury would be unable to set aside. See Worthey, 716 F.3d at 1114–15. Similarly, Evans articulates no convincing reason for us to conclude that the number of files shown in this case or the amount of time the jury was required to spend reviewing them was impermissibly excessive. See, e.g., United States v. Becht, 267 F.3d 767, 770, 774 (8th Cir. 2001). On this record, we cannot say that publication of the images and video clips to the jury was unfairly prejudicial. Without a preliminary showing of prejudice, “we need not consider or weigh the probative value” of the images and video clips. Worthey, 716 F.3d at 1115. Because there has been no showing of unfair prejudice, we cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion in admitting the images and video clips. See Worthey, 716 F.3d at 1110–11, 1114–15 (affirming the admission of five seconds each of nine videos out of 200 videos and 204 images found in the defendant’s possession); McCourt, 468 F.3d at 1093 (affirming the admission of seven video clips found in the defendant’s possession); Becht, 267 F.3d at 770, 774 (affirming the admission of 39 still images of child pornography and the provision of hard copies of the photos to the jury).