United States v. Haymond

Andre Haymond (plaintiff), an 18-year-old Oklahoma resident, used his computer to locate, host, download, and share images of child pornography. Rich Whisman, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), discovered Haymond’s illegal activities during an undercover online investigation into child-pornography activity on LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing website. A peer-to-peer website allows users to share files with other users directly from their own computers without the need for a central server. Agent Whisman found Haymond’s shared files on LimeWire, downloaded a selection to confirm the files contained child pornography, and then obtained a warrant to search Haymond’s computer. Haymond consented to an interview with FBI agents and admitted to searching for and downloading child pornography on a regular basis. During the FBI’s forensic evaluation of Haymond’s computer, the FBI found 70 files containing child pornography, seven of which were confirmed to be part of a series produced in Florida. The source of the other photos could not be confirmed. The images were recovered from the unallocated space on Haymond’s computer, meaning that Haymond had deleted the files before the computer was seized. The FBI recovered the deleted files using special software. The federal government (defendant) charged Haymond with possession of child pornography for the seven Florida child-pornography images. Haymond was convicted following a jury trial. Haymond appealed, arguing there was insufficient evidence to prove that (1) Haymond knew the image files discovered on his computer were child pornography; or that (2) Haymond had control over the child-pornography files found in the unallocated disk space on his computer.