CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LEGAL TO VIEW ONLINE IN NEW YORK; COURT RULES LOOKING AT PORN DOESN’T MEAN POSSESSION

huffingtonpost.com


It is now not illegal to view child pornography on the internet in New York.  Thestate's Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that simply looking at child pornography online does notconstitute criminal possession or procurement of the images.  Some affirmative act isrequired, such as, printing, saving downloading, etc. to show the defendant in fact exerciseddominion and control over the images that were on the screen.    James Kent, a 65year old former professor at Marist College, had pornographic images on his computer.  He wasconvicted of two counts of procuring and 134 counts of possessing a sexual performance by achild.    He began his 1 to 3 year sentence in 2009.  The Court of Appealsagreed that Kent was properly convicted because he had downloaded, saved and deleted 132images.  But the majority said some images in his computer cache, temporary filesautomatically stored from sites he viewed, cannot be held against him under state law.  Kentwas absolved of two of the counts against him.  As for the rest of the counts, he is stillguilty.  One subfolder contained approximately 13,000 saved images of female childrenestimated to be 8 or 9 years old, dressed in lingerie or bathing suits and many with their legsspread open.
(New York)