United States v. Heinrich, No. 21-2723 (3d Cir. 2023)
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Heinrich undressed two preschool girls, manipulated them into positions, and took pictures of their genitals. When the girls reported the incident, police found the photos and video of the girls as well as the other child pornography on Heinrich’s electronic devices, although Heinrich had tried to delete the images of the girls. He admitted that he had taken the pictures. Charged with 15 counts of producing child pornography, 18 U.S.C. 2251(a), and one count of possessing child pornography, section 2252(a)(4)(B). Heinrich argued that he lacked the mental state required by 2251(a) because he was trying to show beauty and innocence, not “sexually explicit conduct.” Heinrich tried to present an expert psychological report that concluded, his “painful history as a ‘damaged’ child led him to capture on film what he inappropriately saw as images of beauty, purity, and innocence.”
The Third Circuit affirmed his convictions. The report is inadmissible because, under the statute, his reason for taking the pictures is irrelevant; punishes those who orchestrate objectively sexually explicit conduct involving a minor in order to take pictures of that conduct. Heinrich did that. Defining the crime that way is constitutional: trying to expose children’s genitals is in itself usually blameworthy.
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