By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//February 15, 2012//
United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
Criminal
Criminal Procedure — double jeopardy
Convictions for both receipt and possession of child pornography do not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.
“In this case, the government did not allege at trial, and does not now argue, that the same pornography formed the bases of the separate offenses, and that only the storage medium differed; rather, the government argued to the jury and presented evidence that there were different download dates for each video. We have, in the multiplicity context, found that even where the indictment contains overlapping time periods, the government’s evidence at trial can support a finding of separate violations. See United States v. Snyder, 189 F.3d 640, 647 (7th Cir. 1999) (finding that the Double Jeopardy Clause was not implicated in a multiplicity challenge where ‘the indictment alleges that the violations occurred over a nine-month period between January and October 1996, and the government presented evidence that Snyder committed numerous separate acts during this period’).”
Affirmed in part, and Vacated in part.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, McCuskey, J., Williams, J.