United States v. Roderick
United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
62 M.J. 425 (2006)
- Written by Salina Kennedy, JD
Facts
Staff Sergeant Casey Roderick (defendant), the single father of two young daughters, agreed to babysit a friend’s two children for the weekend. After the visit, one of the children, eight-year-old SKA, reported that Roderick had sexually abused her and that he had taken inappropriate photos of her. A search of Roderick’s home revealed photographs and other media depicting suspected child pornography. A military judge sitting alone as a general court-martial found Roderick guilty of multiple offenses, including one specification of using his daughter, CMR, to create sexually explicit photos. Roderick’s defense counsel asked the military judge to make special findings of fact regarding the specification. In his special findings, the military judge identified three photos of CMR as sexually explicit. The photos depicted CMR fully or partially nude but did not depict her genitals or pubic area. The United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction. Roderick appealed, arguing that the photos did not depict sexually explicit conduct as defined by the relevant federal statute and were therefore legally insufficient to support his conviction.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Erdmann, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.