Opinion ID: 796002
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Publication of the Video Clips

Text: 10 We review for an abuse of discretion the district court's evidentiary rulings. United States v. Becht, 267 F.3d 767, 770 (8th Cir.2001). McCourt does not challenge the relevance of the video clips under Fed.R.Evid. 401, but rather focuses his argument on his claim that unfair prejudice resulted from the district court's admission of the seven three-second video clips. Specifically, McCourt asserts: (1) in light of his stipulation that the video clips contained child pornography, the clips should have been excluded as a matter of law under Old Chief v. United States, 519 U.S. 172, 117 S.Ct. 644, 136 L.Ed.2d 574 (1997); and (2) the district court failed to engage in a Rule 403 balancing test in deciding whether to admit the video clips or allow his stipulation as a substitute. We address these arguments in turn. 11 Rule 403 allows a trial judge to exclude relevant evidence on the grounds that its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. Fed. R.Evid. 403. Old Chief instructs district courts to discount the probative value of the disputed evidence if it poses a risk of unfair prejudice and an evidentiary alternative has equal or greater probative value. 519 U.S. at 182-83, 117 S.Ct. 644; Becht, 267 F.3d at 773. Stipulating to an element of the offense does not generally constitute an evidentiary alternative having equal or greater probative value. United States v. Sewell, 457 F.3d 841, 844 (8th Cir.2006). Accordingly, a defendant's Rule 403 objection offering to concede a point generally cannot prevail over the Government's choice to offer evidence showing guilt and all the circumstances surrounding the offense. Old Chief, 519 U.S. at 183, 117 S.Ct. 644. In essence, the Government is entitled to prove its case by evidence of its own choice, and a criminal defendant may not stipulate or admit his way out of the full evidentiary force of the case as the Government chooses to present it. See id. at 186-87, 117 S.Ct. 644. 12 In Old Chief, the Supreme Court held that the defendant's stipulation to a prior felony to establish his status as a felon, which was an element of the charged offense, was sufficient to preclude the Government from offering additional evidence on this point. 519 U.S. at 191, 117 S.Ct. 644. However, the Court expressly limited its holding to cases where proof of convict status is at issue, id. at 192, 117 S.Ct. 644, and our cases agree. Becht, 267 F.3d at 774 (We believe the Old Chief Court made clear that, absent the unusual circumstance of prior criminal status, the Government is free to offer its evidence as it sees fit.); United States v. Hill, 249 F.3d 707, 713 (8th Cir.2001) (noting that the rationale for the limited rule of Old Chief disappears when a stipulation goes to any element of the crime other than criminal status). As such, we have upheld publication of child pornography images to the jury over a defendant's offer to stipulate to their content. Sewell, 457 F.3d at 844 (reversing the exclusion of 23 images proffered for publication for three or four seconds each); Becht, 267 F.3d at 774 (upholding the admission of 39 images published to the jury on a computer screen and distributed as hard copies). We believe McCourt's Old Chief argument is decided by our precedent. 13 McCourt next argues that the district court abused its discretion by failing to conduct a balancing test as required by Rule 403. McCourt's contention is not supported by the record because during the motion in limine conference the district court stated that the Government's agreement to publish the videos for only a few seconds each was certainly a better and potentially less prejudicial way to proceed than to show the entire file. While this may not amount to a lengthy analysis, the district court's mere failure to make a record of its Rule 403 weighing is not reversible error. Smith v. Tenet Healthsystem SL, Inc., 436 F.3d 879, 885 (8th Cir.2006); see also United States v. Flaherty, 76 F.3d 967, 973 n. 5 (8th Cir.1996) (A district court is not required to make explicit findings regarding its Rule 403 balancing.), abrogated on other grounds by United States v. Ryan, 227 F.3d 1058, 1062 (8th Cir.2000). We find nothing in the record to indicate that the district court did not conduct a Rule 403 analysis when faced with McCourt's motion in limine. Smith, 436 F.3d at 885 (We presume that the district court weighed this evidence pursuant to Rule 403 because the district court ruled on motions and objections in which [defendant] specifically requested that the court weigh the probative value of the records against their prejudicial effect.). 14 Moreover, a more thorough balancing evaluation would not demand exclusion of the video clips in this case. McCourt fails to recognize that the 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. Old Chief, 519 U.S. at 182, 117 S.Ct. 644 (On [a Rule 403] objection, the court would decide whether a particular item of evidence raised a danger of unfair prejudice. If it did, the judge would go on to evaluate the degrees of probative value and unfair prejudice not only for the item in question but for any actually available substitute as well.) (emphasis added). 15 The only argument that McCourt offers in support of his unfair prejudice claim is that videos of child pornography, more so than still images, arouse emotions that a jury is unable to set aside in reaching its verdict. While the videos were no doubt unfavorable to McCourt, the fact remains that [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. United States v. Johnson, 463 F.3d 803, 809 (8th Cir.2006) (internal quotation omitted) (emphasis added). McCourt may be correct that videos are qualitatively different from still images, but it is also true that a video is nothing more than a series of still images shown in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion. Only seven videos out of the more than 175 found on McCourt's computer were shown to the jury and each for only three seconds. Because any illusion of motion created by a mere three seconds of video is surely minimal, we see little qualitative difference between the limited publication of these seven videos and the publication of still images for longer durations, as upheld in our prior cases. See Sewell, 457 F.3d at 844 (reversing exclusion of more than 60 seconds of still images); Becht, 267 F.3d at 774 (upholding 39 images displayed and hard copies distributed to jurors). Moreover, unlike in Becht and Sewell, which dealt with the defendant's collection of still images, we see no reason here that the Government must limit its evidence to still images because McCourt did not so limit his collection. 16 Given the limited number of videos and their minimal duration, we do not find that their publication to the jury constitutes unfair prejudice. Consequently, because McCourt failed to make a preliminary showing of unfair prejudice, we are not required under Rule 403 to assess and weigh the probative value of the videos or the alternative provided by McCourt's stipulation.