United States v. Fechner, No. 18-3711 (8th Cir. 2020)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for transportation of pornography and receipt of child pornography. The court held that the district court did not err in allowing the government to introduce independently downloaded child pornography videos which matched the hash values, name, length and thumbnail images of files deleted from defendant's phone and SD card as the videos were relevant to establishing that defendant knowingly downloaded child pornography; the district court did not err by admitting a summary exhibit of videos; even if the exhibit made conclusions or assumptions, its admission was harmless; admission of child erotica images was permissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), and even if its admission was error, the error was harmless; and there was no error in limiting the jury instruction regarding child erotica.
Court Description: [Erickson, Author, with Melloy and Kobes, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. The district court did not err in allowing the government to introduce independently downloaded child pornography videos which matched the hash values, name, length and thumbnail images of files deleted from defendant's phone and SD card as the videos were relevant to establishing that defendant knowingly downloaded child pornography; no error in admitting summary exhibit of videos; because the exhibit does not make assumptions or conclusions, the evidence it summarized needed only to be admissible, not already admitted; even if the exhibit made conclusions or assumptions, its admission was harmless; admission of child erotica images was permissible under Rule 404(b), and even if its admission was error, the error was harmless; no error in the jury limiting instruction given regarding child erotica. Judge Kobes, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
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