Court Opinion

ID: 9483969
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:36:57.211745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:56.765269
License: Public Domain

*353RALPH B. GUY, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result.
Although I concur in the result reached in this case, my analysis differs somewhat from Judge Batchelder’s.
As to the entrapment issue, it cannot be gainsaid that Jacobson makes this a close case. This is particularly true if, as the minority in Jacobson claims, the majority has redefined predisposition. I find it unnecessary to explore this issue, however, since Kussmaul was acquitted by the jury on the child pornography charge. I, of course, have no way of knowing whether the jury found entrapment or some other fatal defect in the prosecution’s case, but, for whatever reason, Kussmaul was found not guilty.
The acquittal on the child pornography charge is central to my analysis because child pornography was the only focus of the sting. If a seed was planted and nurtured by the government that allegedly led defendant to commit a criminal act, that act would have been causing child pornography to be shipped in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2)(A). However, defendant was convicted only on the related but very different charge of causing to be delivered by mail obscene material, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1461.
In short, although I find arguable merit to defendant’s arguments as they relate to his predisposition to order and possess child pornography, I find the record replete with ample evidence of predisposition to support his conviction under § 1461.
The sentencing issue raised by defendant revolves around the fact that the sentencing guidelines provided a more severe penalty for certain obscenity offenses in 1991 than they did earlier.1 Defendant argues that he placed his order for the pornographic video tapes on May 4, 1990, and that should be the date that controls. Defendant alternately argues that the only reason the tapes were not delivered to him during a time frame covered by the more lenient guidelines was that the government, on its own, elected to delay the delivery until a few days after the 1991 guidelines became effective.2
I find it unnecessary to resolve the issue as framed by the parties because I conclude the district court erred in applying the cross-reference provision of U.S.S.G. § 2G3.1(c)(1). This section reads:
If the offense involved transporting, distributing, receiving, possession, or advertising to receive material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor, apply § 2G2.2 (Trafficking in Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor; Receiving, Transporting, Advertising, or Possessing Material Involving the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor with Intent to Traffic) or § 2G2.4 (Receipt or Possession of Materials Depicting a Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct), as appropriate.
In this case, although the government’s whole effort was directed at securing a child pornography conviction, a little insurance was taken out by adding the § 1461 general obscenity count.3 Guideline section 2G3.1(c)(l) specifies that if the offense *354involved the sexual exploitation of a minor, cross referencing to other guideline sections is mandated. Here, the offense of conviction did not involve a charge implicating minors or their sexual exploitation at all. The government cannot have it both ways. The indictment either charged two separate and distinct offenses or was duplicitous. To cross-reference under section 2G3.1 would be to nullify the jury verdict of acquittal on the child pornography count. This is not permissible.

. The pre-1991 base offense level was 6. Post-1991, the base offense level for child pornography is 10.

. The 1991 guideline amendments became effective November 1, 1991. The controlled delivery was made November 7, 1991.

. Count 1, the child pornography count, reads:
On or about November 7, 1990, in the Southern District of Ohio, WALTER J. KUSS-MAUL did knowingly receive a package which had been transported and shipped in interstate commerce to the State of Ohio, addressed to Walter J. Kussmaul, 1214 Denman Avenue, Coshocton, Ohio 43812, knowing said package contained a video cassette constituting visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
In violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) and 18 U.S.C. § 2.
Count 2, the general obscenity count, by contrast, charged:
On or about November 7, 1990, in the Southern District of Ohio, WALTER J. KUSS-MAUL did knowingly cause to be delivered by mail, according to the direction thereon, non-mailable matter, that is, a certain package addressed to Walter J. Kussmaul, 1214 Den-man Avenue, Coshocton, Ohio 43812, containing two (2) obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy and vile videotape recordings.
In violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1461.