Judge Bias

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Avery Smartt

Case No.: 21-1637

Officials: Sykes, Chief Judge, and Scudder and St. Eve, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Judge Bias

Avery Smartt had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old runaway (S.S.) and traveled around the country with her as he worked as an over-the-road trucker. Along the way he took sexually explicit photos of her. When she got pregnant, he returned her to her hometown of Alton, Illinois. The FBI started investigating when S.S. sought medical care at an Alton hospital during the fourth month of her pregnancy. Agents obtained a warrant to search Smartt’s home in East St. Louis, where they seized electronic devices containing sexually explicit photos of S.S. DNA tests confirmed that Smartt is the father of her child.

A federal grand jury indicted Smartt for producing child pornography. A charge of witness tampering was added after Smartt sent letters addressed to S.S. and third parties trying to influence her testimony. A jury found him guilty on both counts, and the district judge imposed a long prison term.

Smartt argues that the judge committed reversible error by referring to S.S. as “the victim” in front of the jury. Referring to S.S. as “the victim” was not an error at all, much less a plain error. That she was the victim in the case would become obvious in the first minutes of her testimony, and the jury needed to know why she would be referred to by her initials. The judge simply accurately identified her relationship to the case and explained why her full name would not be used.

Affirmed.

Decided 01/24/23

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