Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals - Published Opinions

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Pruitt: Viewing Child Porn Images Suffices for Knowing Receipt

In U.S. v. Pruitt, No 10-10829 (April 13, 2011), the Court held that, to violate the prohibition against knowing receipt on computers of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2), it suffices for a defendant to knowingly seek out and view child pornography images on a computer. The Court also held that knowing receipt can be inferred from the existence of 70 such images in the defendant’s computer’s “cache” and of 200 such images in the computer’s “unallocated space,” as well as evidence of internet searches with search terms such as “nude little boy.”