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Criminal Law Keyed to Osler
United States v. Smith
Citation:
739 F. 3d 843 (5th Cir. 2014)Facts
There was child pornography downloaded on a computer shared between the defendant, his girlfriend Elizabeth Penix and his friend Joshua Jolly. Penix was at work at the time of the download and her alibi checked out, but Jolly worked as a mechanic and did not have an alibi. He testified that he did not know the files were on the computer and had limited knowledge of how to use a computer.
Prosecution presented evidence that 26 videos of child pornography were downloaded using very accessible software. The fact that he had a poor alibi and it was his computer, they argued, showed that he was in possession of the pornography. The defense presented evidence that Jolly used the computer regularly and had basic knowledge of it which is all that was required for the software. The defendant did have an alibi that he was at his parent’s house that his girlfriend corroborated, but neither his mother or girlfriend mentioned this in their initial interviews with officers.
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