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Missouri Man Gets 3 Years for Reading 'Incest Comics'

Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

This week U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple sentenced Christjan Bee of Monett, Missouri, to three years in prison for "possessing an obscene image of the sexual abuse of children." The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri describes the material at issue as "a collection of electronic comics, entitled 'incest comics,'" that "contained multiple images of minors engaging in graphic sexual intercourse with adults and other minors." According to federal prosecutors, "The depictions clearly lack any literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

Notice the last sentence. That's the Miller Test for obscenity. These are drawings. Full article at: https://reason.com/2013/01/31/missouri-man-gets-three-years-for-posses/

Replies:   Dominions Son  Remus2
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

Did you notice that the article you cited is 8 years old?

Also I think a more important quote from the article is this:

Local police found the drawings on Bee's computer in August 2011 while executing a search warrant they obtained based on a tip from his wife. Bee originally was indicted for receiving child pornography, based on a different set of images, but that charge was dropped as part of a plea deal.

Also:

But while the Court has upheld bans on possession (as opposed to production or distribution) of child pornography, it has rejected bans on possession of obscenity. In the latter case, decided in 1969, the Court unanimously ruled that the power to regulate obscenity "does not extend to mere possession by the individual in the privacy of his own home." Hence it is hard to see how Bee can be sent to prison for mere possession of those "incest comics."

And:

Bee won't be raising a First Amendment challenge, however, because he gave up that right in exchange for dismissal of the child pornography charge, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.

They went after him for real child pornography (actual images of actual children), but the let him plead down to a obscenity charge based on a separate set of "incest comics" they found while searching for the real child pornography.

The other case mentioned in the article is the same kind of deal a real child porn charge dismissed in favor of a guilty plea on an obscenity charge for a different set of images than what was covered by the child pornography charge.

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Dominions Son

Did you notice that the article you cited is 8 years old?

I did not. Oops.
Why would Yahoo be showing the article now? (rhetorical) That's stupid.

Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

Why would Yahoo be showing the article now? (rhetorical) That's stupid.

That's Yahoo.

sunseeker ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

Sensationalistic, misleading headlines from msm...I don't expect anything less from ANY news outlets anymore :(

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

Why would Yahoo be showing the article now? (rhetorical) That's stupid.

Duh! It's Yahoo, the last article they ever posted was what, 8 years ago?

Remus2 ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

The point of the OP is still valid despite subsequent court actions. Unless the individual has a multimillion dollar legal defense team, they can still be railroaded.
From the link

Bee won't be raising a First Amendment challenge, however, because he gave up that right in exchange for dismissal of the child pornography charge, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. The charge to which he pled guilty, by contrast, carries an indeterminate sentence of up to 10 years, and in the end the plea deal shaved at least two years off his prison term.

What that tells me is, a cheap lawyer convinced him to give up the one thing that could have cleared him totally.

Replies:   DBActive
DBActive ๐Ÿšซ

@Remus2

No. He would have done a longer term for the child pornography charge. He wasn't railroaded.

Replies:   Michael Loucks
Michael Loucks ๐Ÿšซ

@DBActive

No. He would have done a longer term for the child pornography charge. He wasn't railroaded.

Except by the 'mandatory minimum' that Congress enacted to remove all discretion from judges. That forces more pleas than just about anything I can think of.

Replies:   Dominions Son
Dominions Son ๐Ÿšซ

@Michael Loucks

That forces more pleas than just about anything I can think of.

Charge stacking by prosecutors. Then they tell you if you go to trial they'll ask for consecutive rather than concurrent sentences.

With the child pornography, lets say someone gets caught with 5 images.

The prosecutor could hit them with one charge for all 5 images or charge each image separately.

If they charge each of 5 images as a separate count and ask for consecutive sentences, the minimum just went from 5 years, to 25 years.

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