Hello, It\'s about U.S. v McNealy Case. 1. What was the primary issue in the exc

Question

Hello,

It's about U.S. v McNealy Case.

1. What was the primary issue in the excerpted case?

2. How did the court answer the issue; i.e., what was the court's decision or holding?

3. What was the court's reason for it's decision? For this question explain how the court applied the facts to the law.

4. How does this case apply to this week's material?

Here a link about U.S. v McNealy Case.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1543777.html

It needs to be at least 350 of words in length. Thank you for your help!

Abby J.

Explanation / Answer

Ans:

1) Joseph McNealy appeals his conviction for possession and receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. §2252(a)(2), (a)(4)(B). He raises a number of issues, including whether the Speedy Trial Act was violated, the pornographic depictions of children were properly authenticated as images of actual children, and the destruction of his computer's hard drives was in bad faith.

2)

A nationwide investigation of commercial child-pornography websites revealed evidence that Joseph McNealy had purchased memberships to a number of such sites. Federal agents interviewed McNealy at his residence, and he consented to a search of his computer. That initial search discovered pornographic images of children on a hard drive. McNealy then consented in writing to the seizure of the computer for further examination.

More than 9,000 pornographic images of children were found. These images had been downloaded from commercial websites and other internet sources. Federal agents created “forensic image” copies of the three hard drives in McNealy's computer; however, his computer and its hard drives were subsequently destroyed. McNealy was indicted for knowing possession and receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. §2252(a). Before trial, the district court granted continuances at the requests of both McNealy and the Government. At trial, the Government introduced print-outs of some of the images found on McNealy's computer, using the forensic image copies of two of the hard drives. McNealy was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 70 months of imprisonment, followed by a life term of supervised release.

3)

McNealy contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because it failed to show that he knew that the images he possessed depicted actual minors. We review a jury verdict under a “highly deferential” standard.44 “We will affirm the jury's decision if, viewing the evidence and the inferences that may be drawn from it in the light most favorable to the verdict, a rational jury could have found the essential elements of the offenses beyond a reasonable doubt.”45 “It is not necessary that the evidence exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence or be wholly inconsistent with every conclusion except that of guilt, provided a reasonable trier of fact could find that the evidence establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”46

In order to be convicted under 18 U.S.C. §2252(a) for knowing receipt and possession of child pornography, a defendant must know that the images depict actual minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.47 The relevant scienter requirement goes both to the receipt and possession of the material, and to the nature of the images.48

The facts and information presented to the jury clearly support McNealy's conviction. The Government presented exhibits of the images themselves and evidence of how McNealy obtained the images. As already discussed, juries are capable of distinguishing between real and virtual images of minors, and they could find beyond a reasonable doubt that McNealy could as well.49 Additionally, the methods by which McNealy located and downloaded the images at issue support a finding that he knew the images depicted actual minors. The search histories on McNealy's computer revealed that he searched online using terms that included “pre-teen girls” and “preteen girls russian.” He created bookmarks to save the addresses of favorite websites including one that's name contained “LOLITA young preteen.” McNealy accessed multiple commercial child-pornography websites, viewed and saved images from them, joined child-pornography internet newsgroups, searched the internet for “lolita” themed pornography, and used peer-to-peer file sharing software to locate child pornography. He ultimately downloaded more than 9,000 images of child pornography. Given this evidence, a rational jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that McNealy knew that images he downloaded depicted actual minors.

4)

In this case, the defendant requested, and was granted, additional time for his counsel to prepare for trial. The Court found that to deny the continuance would have deprived the defendant of reasonable time necessary for effective preparation, and that the ends of justice would be served by granting the continuance requested by the defendant. The Court also found that the ends of justice served by the granting of the continuance outweighed the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.”

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse H
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.