United States v. Simpson
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
152 F.3d 1241 (1998)
- Written by Abby Roughton, JD
Facts
The United States (plaintiff) charged William (Bill) Simpson (defendant) with receiving child pornography. At trial, Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Rehman testified about an Internet chat discussion that he allegedly had with Simpson. Rehman testified that he entered a chat room called Kidsexpics under the fake name FlaHawk. Rehman further testified that he had a chat conversation in the room with someone who identified himself as Stavron. During the chat, Stavron told Rehman that his name was “B. Simpson,” and he gave Rehman an email address and street address that other witnesses identified as belonging to Simpson. Rehman testified that he and Stavron discussed child pornography during their chat conversation and that Stavron told Rehman that he had many child-pornography images. Tulsa Police Detective Johnson testified that he verified that someone named Bill Simpson lived at the street address that Stavron had given to Rehman. Johnson and other detectives executed a search warrant at the address and seized computers, disks, and papers containing the name FlaHawk and other information that Rehman had given Stavron in the chat room. The prosecution sought to admit a computer printout of the chat discussion between Rehman and Simpson. Simpson argued that the evidence was not properly authenticated because the prosecution could not identify the statements in the discussion as being in Simpson’s handwriting, writing style, or voice. However, the trial court admitted the discussion printout into evidence. The jury convicted Simpson, and he appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Anderson, J.)
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