State v. Sisler

827 A.2d 274, 177 N.J. 199, 2003 N.J. LEXIS 857

• Court: Supreme Court of New Jersey
• Decided: July 24, 2003
• Status: Published

Opinions

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

VERNIERO, J.

This case requires us to interpret the child-pornography provisions of New Jersey’s child-endangerment statute. Defendant allegedly printed a prohibited image from a computer for his sole personal use. The State charged defendant as a second-degree offender under N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(4), exposing him to a presumptive seven-year prison term. The narrow legal issue is whether the statute permits that charge as a matter of law. We hold that it does not.

I.

We briefly summarize the pertinent facts. Acting on information that an unidentified male was using a public computer at a local library to view and print images of child pornography, an FBI agent went to the library to investigate. The agent observed the individual, later identified as defendant, access certain Internet web sites and use the library’s printer to copy the prohibited images. The images focused on the children’s genitalia. Although the record does not clearly indicate how many different images defendant allegedly had printed, the agent indicated that “the copied pages were piled about an inch and a half thick.” State v. Sisler, 353 N.J.Super. 590, 594, 803 A.2d 700 (App.Div. 2002).

The agent contacted the county prosecutor’s office regarding the incident, and a joint investigation was initiated. The law enforcement authorities thereafter obtained a search warrant for defendant’s car and residence. After executing the warrant, the authorities discovered “a large number of photographs of naked children printed from computer images.” Ibid. A detective from the county prosecutor’s office stated that defendant admitted that he possessed images of “nude young boys” at his home and that he often masturbated while viewing the pictures. For purposes of this appeal, defendant acknowledges that at least one of the images satisfies the statutory definition of child pornography.

The grand jury indicted defendant on two counts of child endangerment. The first count alleges that defendant “knowingly did use a computer to reproduce the image of a child in a prohibited sexual act” in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(4), a second-degree offense that exposes him to a presumptive seven-year prison term. N.J.S.A. 2C:44-lf(c). The indictment’s second count charges defendant with possession of child pornography in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(5)(b), a fourth-degree offense that exposes him to a presumptive nine-month prison term. N.J.S.A. 2C:44-lf(e).

Before trial, defendant moved to dismiss the reproduction count. The trial court granted that motion, and the Appellate Division affirmed in a reported opinion. Sisler, supra, 353 N.J.Super. 590, 803 A.2d 700. The Appellate Division concluded that, as a matter of law, a person who prints a computer image for his or her personal use has not “reproduced” it within the meaning of the statute. More specifically, the panel determined that the Legislature did not intend “that the simple act of clicking a mouse button to print a computer image” would transform a lone viewer “into a producer of child pornography subject to second degree penalties[.]” Id. at 598-99, 803 A.2d 700. We granted the State’s motion for leave to appeal, 175 N.J. 72, 812 A.2d 1106 (2002), and now affirm.

II.

The statutory provisions implicated in this case derive from a 1977 “Act prohibiting the sexual exploitation of children in photographs and films[.]” L. 1977, c. 329. That enactment predated the Code of Criminal Justice (Code). Under the prior Act, “[a]ny person who photograph[ed] or film[ed] a child in a prohibited sexual act or in the simulation of such an act [was] guilty of a high misdemeanor.” Ibid. The Act also made it a crime for any person to cause a child to engage in a prohibited sexual act or to sell such images of children, but it did not criminalize the mere possession of the prohibited photographs or films. Ibid.

The Code was adopted in 1978. With it, the Legislature included portions of the prior Act in the ehild-endangerment statute, L. 1978, c. 95 (codified at N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4). The Code graded the relevant offenses as crimes of the second degree. Ibid.

As technologies changed, lawmakers sought more generic ways of describing the method by which child pornography was made. In 1983, the Legislature enacted language to ensure that the statute brought the “reproduction or reconstruction” of a prohibited image within its reach. To the list of second-degree offenders who photograph or film a child in a prohibited sexual act, the Legislature thus added the person “who uses any device to reproduce or reconstruct the image of a child” in such an act. L. 1983, c. 494. In the same set of amendments, the Legislature also criminalized as a second-degree offense the sale or distribution of any depiction of a prohibited image that is captured on “video tape or any other reproduction or reconstruction!)]” Ibid.

The 1983 revisions appear to be in response to advances made in video imaging. They make clear that it is not just by a photograph or traditional film that a second-degree offender can deal in prohibited pornography. In that respect, a Senate committee statement that accompanied the amendments explains that lawmakers intended to “include video tapes and other types of reproductions and reconstruction within the purview of the child pornography statute.” Senate Judiciary Committee, Statement to Senate, No. 1843 (Dec. 8,1993).

The Legislature also revised the statute in 1992 by adding simple possession of child pornography as a fourth-degree offense. L. 1992, c. 2. Then, in 1998, the Legislature again amended the statute to criminalize child pornography on the Internet. The Legislature accomplished that aim by revising the law in three respects. First, lawmakers added a definition of “Reproduction” that includes “computer generated images.” L. 1998, c. 126 (currently codified under N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(l)). Second, they revised the portion of the statute that, in its original 1977 form, had criminalized the photographing or filming of a child in a prohibited sexual' act. Those revisions now make clear that the person who creates a prohibited image via a photograph, film, or computer generation is guilty of a second-degree offense. The provision’s current text, which is the focus of this appeal, provides:

Any person who photographs or films a child in a prohibited sexual act or in the simulation of such an act or who uses any device, including a computer, to reproduce or reconstruct the image of a child in a prohibited sexual act or in the simulation of such an act is guilty of a crime of the second degree.

[N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(4).]

Finally, the Legislature revised the provision regarding possession by adding explicit language in respect of the Internet. As amended, that provision states:

Any person who knowingly possesses or knowingly views any photograph, film, videotape, computer program or file, video game or any other reproduction or reconstruction which depicts a child engaging in a prohibited sexual act or in the simulation of such an act, including on the Internet, is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.

[N.J.S.A. 2C:24r4b(5)(b) (emphasis added).]

The above history demonstrates how the Legislature meticu-. lously denominated certain offenders and crimes in accordance with their perceived degrees of severity. Persons who cause or permit a child to engage in a prohibited sexual act (knowing or intending that pornography may be produced as a result) are second-degree offenders. The exception is when such persons are parents or guardians of the child, in which case they are treated as first-degree offenders. N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(3). Also considered second-degree offenders are individuals who photograph or film a child in a prohibited sexual act, N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(4), or who generate such an image via a computer, ibid., and persons who sell, manufacture, distribute, circulate, disseminate, or present such images to other persons. N.J.S.A 2C:24-4b(5)(a).

In contrast, the person who “knowingly possesses or knowingly views” the prohibited image is guilty of a fourth-degree offense. N.J.SA 2C:24-4b(5)(b). The Code’s grading pattern in respect of child pornography is similar to its provisions regarding drug offenses under which distribution offenses are treated more severely than possession offenses. Compare N.J.S.A. 2C:35-5b(4) (grading manufacture or distribution of one ounce or more of Schedule I or II drug as second-degree offense) with N.J.S.A. 2C:35-10a(2) (grading simple possession of Schedule V drug as fourth-degree offense).

III.

This dispute requires us to construe the term “reproduce” contained in N.J.S.A. 2C:2-4b(4). The State argues that the plain, dictionary definition of that term includes within its purview defendant’s alleged conduct. In other words, “reproduction” includes the act of printing a computer image for one’s personal use. In response, defendant essentially argues that the Legislature did not intend Bis alleged conduct to faU within the category of a second-degree offense. He thus contends that the trial court properly dismissed the indictment’s reproduction count.

A.

Since the Legislature first enacted it in 1977, the provision at issue here has had as its focus the creation of child pornography. As noted, it originally contemplated that a culpable party would produce such material in one of two ways, i.e., by photograph or by film. The statute today contemplates that the party might generate the prohibited image via other methods or devices such as video imaging, or via a computer device that would aid the person in “reproducing” or “reconstructing” the image for use on the Internet.

From that perspective, we agree with defendant. The disputed language, fairly read, merely describes the computer-generation or other technological process that creates the prohibited image that the original creator or that another person, in turn, disseminates, possesses, or simply views. Stated differently, we consider the word “reproduce” alongside the second-degree offenses to which it is held equivalent, including “photograph[ing] or filming] a child in a prohibited sexual act[.]” The Legislature coupled the offenses of photographing and reproducing, indicating that they are of comparable gravity and worthy of identical punishment. The term “reproduce” thereby takes on a comparable meaning.

The coupling of words denotes an intention that they shall be understood in the same general sense. The natural, ordinary and general meaning of terms and expressions may be limited, qualified and specialized by those in immediate association. Words which, standing alone, might seem of doubtful significance, may yet be made plain by comparison with other terms and provisions of the law.

[Jersey Cent Power & Light Co. v. State Bd. of Tax Appeals, 131 N.J.L. 565, 567, 37 A.2d 111 (E. & A.1944).]

A creator of child pornography {e.g., a person who initially photographs or films the child) is more culpable than a possessor because the creator sets in motion the highly objectionable industry that this statute seeks to combat. Reading the subsection’s text as a whole, we conclude that the Legislature similarly intended the companion term “reproduce” to require more than the printing of a preexisting image for personal use. We are not persuaded by the State’s resort to a dictionary definition of the term that gives it a meaning uninformed by context.

It is always an unsafe way of construing a statute ... to divide it by a process of etymological dissection, and to separate words and then apply to each, thus separated from its context, some particular definition given by lexicographers and then reconstruct the instrument upon the basis of these definitions. An instrument must always be construed as a whole, and the particular meaning to be attached to any word or phrase is usually to be ascribed from the context, the nature of the subject matter treated of, and the purpose or intention of ... the body which enacted or framed the statute or constitution.

[2A Norman J. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction § 46:05 at 167-68 (6th ed.2000) (footnote omitted).]

Defendant, who allegedly printed an already-created image for his sole use, does not fit within a category of second-degree offender. There is no allegation that defendant knowingly received the image for the purpose of selling it. Nor does the State allege that defendant sold, displayed, or distributed the prohibited image to other persons. Thus, he is no more than a suspected fourth-degree possessor. That the State has presented a reasonable contrary construction of the statute does not alter our conclusion. Indeed, when a criminal statute is susceptible to two plausible interpretations we are bound by our canons of construction to construe it in the light most favorable to the accused. State v. Livingston, 172 N.J. 209, 218, 797 A.2d 153 (2002).

B.

One of the Code’s hallmarks is its grading of offenses. When Governor Byrne signed the Code into law in 1978, his office highlighted that fact, explaining that the “Code classifies crimes as first, second, third and fourth degree based on degrees of severity.” Press Release, Office of Governor Brendan Byrne (Aug. 10, 1978). Although the person who possesses child pornography helps to foster a pernicious industry, his or her offense is less severe than the person who creates an image that then can be sold, distributed, circulated, or simply viewed. Because the State’s construction effectively treats all such individuals alike, it runs counter to the Code’s basic philosophy of distinguishing among offenders by the severity of their offense.

Put differently, that the Legislature would want to punish as second-degree offenders those who create, distribute, or sell the pornography, namely, the persons who make possible its proliferation and use, is true to the statute’s purpose. That lawmakers would consider less culpable the simple possessor, namely, the person who views or prints a computer image for his or her sole use, appears equally rational. Because defendant’s analysis is more faithful to the statute’s history and to the Code’s sentencing structure, it should govern this appeal.

IV.

In sum, the question before us is whether defendant’s alleged conduct falls within N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(4) as a matter of law. We are convinced by the statute’s evolution, its overall structure, and its current text, that the answer to that question is no. The prohibited image already was created when defendant allegedly printed it for his sole use. Thus, he should be exposed to a nine-month prison term as a suspected fourth-degree offender, not to a seven-year prison term as a suspected second-degree offender. The statute is susceptible to two reasonable interpretations. Absent an explicit clarification by the Legislature, we must construe the statute in the light most favorable to a defendant. In so doing, we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division.