Friday, March 11, 2016

Child porn convictions and sentence affirmed.

U.S. v. Smith, 2016 WL 767054 (2/29/16) (Okla.) - Mr. Smith's convictions of eight counts of distribution were not clearly multiplicitous in violation of double jeopardy. The Tenth rejects under the plain error standard his argument that the proper unit of prosecution must be based on instances of making porn available, which he argued occurred once, not every instance of downloading. Because no Tenth Cir. precedent has addressed this multiplicity argument and the only precedential decision from another circuit rejected it, the plain error standard was unmet. The district court properly refused to consider at sentencing Mr. Smith's pro se objection to consideration of his pending state court charge because he was represented by counsel who declined to supplement his argument. Anyhow, the state charge did not affect the bottom-of-the-guidelines sentence imposed.