United States v. McGrattan

504 F.3d 608, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 23727, 2007 WL 2934939
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided October 10, 2007·No. 06-3043·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinions

SCHWARZER, D.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which GIBBONS, J., joined. DAUGHTREY, J. (p. 616), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

WILLIAM W. SCHWARZER, District Judge.

Henry G. McGrattan appeals his twenty-year sentence for (1) using a computer connected to the internet to persuade a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, and (2) knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography. The district court concluded that based on a prior Ohio state offense, a higher fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence applied to the first count. Because the Ohio offense does not categorically qualify as a prior offense under federal law, and because the government has not provided sufficient documentation of McGrattan’s actual conduct in that offense, we vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

On February 22, 2001, Henry G. McGrattan pled guilty to a misdemeanor attempted violation of Ohio Rev.Code section 2907.323(A)(3). According to the 1999 warrant affidavit of an FBI agent, McGrattan had sent several explicit photographs of underage boys and girls to an undercover Illinois detective.

As detailed in an affidavit of complaint, from March through June of 2005, McGrattan sent pictures to and attempted to meet with an FBI agent posing as a twelve-year-old girl on the America Online internet service. On June 29, 2005, McGrattan was indicted on one count of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) for using a computer connected to the internet to persuade a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and one count of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) for knowingly receiv[610] ing and distributing child pornography. On July 19, 2005, McGrattan pled not guilty on both counts. On September 28, 2005, he changed his plea to guilty on both counts.

The district court found that McGrat-tan’s Ohio conviction qualified as a prior conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l), raising the mandatory minimum for the child pornography offense from five to fifteen years. The district court also verbally explained the Guidelines calculations for both counts, resulting in a range of 262 to 327 months. The court acknowledged that McGrattan had raised and preserved several objections to the Guidelines calculations, but decided that because Count 1 carried a 5-year mandatory minimum and Count 2 carried a 15-year mandatory minimum (with a prior conviction), and it was sentencing McGrattan to the mandatory minimum of 240 months, it need not address those objections.

On December 21, 2005, the district court sentenced McGrattan to 20 years’ imprisonment, 5 years’ supervised release, and a mandatory $200 assessment. McGrattan timely appealed.

DISCUSSION

I. APPLICATION OF THE CATEGORICAL APPROACH

McGrattan’s primary contention is that the district court erred by finding that his conviction under Ohio Rev. Code section 2907.323(A)(3) qualified as a prior conviction for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l). He argues that the statutory elements of his prior misdemeanor conviction under section 2907.323 do not sufficiently overlap with 18 U.S.C. § 2256(8) (defining “child pornography”) to result in a predicate child pornography offense under section 2252A(b)(l) in all instances.

We review de novo the district court’s legal conclusion that a prior conviction is a qualifying offense. See, e.g., United States v. Armstead, 467 F.3d 943, 946 (6th Cir.2006) (reviewing conclusion that prior conviction was a “crime of violence” under the Sentencing Guidelines).

18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l) provides that a violator of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 5 years and not more than 20 years, but, if such person has a prior conviction under ... the laws of any State relating to ... the production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or transportation of child pornography, ... such person shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not less than 15 years nor more than 40 years.
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l). 18 U.S.C. § 2256 defines “child pornography” as any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where—
(A) the production of such visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; ...

Finally, “sexually explicit conduct” is defined as “(i) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; (ii) bestiality; (iii) masturbation; (iv) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or (v) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person; ...” 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A).

The Ohio statute under which McGrat-tan was convicted makes it illegal to “[plossess or view any material or performance that shows a minor who is not the person’s child or ward in a state of nudity.” Ohio Rev.Code section [611]*6112907.323(A)(3). The scope of this statute was narrowed in 1990 when the United States Supreme Court adopted the Ohio Supreme Court’s interpretation limiting section 2907.323(A)(3) to cover only “the possession or viewing of material or performance of a minor who is in a state of nudity, where such nudity constitutes a lewd exhibition or involves a graphic focus on the genitals, and where the person depicted is neither the child nor the ward of the person charged.” Osborne v. Ohio, 495 U.S. 103, 113, 110 S.Ct. 1691, 109 L.Ed.2d 98 (1990) (quoting State v. Young, 37 Ohio St.3d 249, 525 N.E.2d 1363, 1368 (1988)) (emphasis added).

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United States v. McGrattan, 504 F.3d 608, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 23727, 2007 WL 2934939 (6th Cir. 2007).

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