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United States v. MacEwan

445 F.3d 237 (2006)

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United States v. MacEwan

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
445 F.3d 237 (2006)

SR

Facts

James MacEwan (defendant) was indicted for downloading child pornography from the Internet in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2)(B). The act prohibited a person from knowingly receiving or distributing materials containing child pornography that had traveled in interstate or foreign commerce. The statute specified that the jurisdictional element requiring travel through interstate or foreign commerce could be satisfied by a computer transmission. At trial, the only contested issue was whether the jurisdictional element of the statute was satisfied. James Janco was the manager of Comcast, MacEwan’s Internet-service provider. Janco testified that there was no way to verify whether the downloaded images traveled through purely intrastate lines or whether they traveled through interstate lines. MacEwan moved for acquittal, arguing that the prosecutor (plaintiff) failed to prove that the child-pornography images traveled outside the state and that the prosecutor therefore did not satisfy the jurisdictional element. The trial court denied the motion, ruling that the prosecution satisfied the jurisdictional element by establishing that the images were received through the Internet. MacEwan appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Aldisert, J.)

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