United States v. Tynes

58 M.J. 704, 2003 CCA LEXIS 101, 2003 WL 1883698
CourtArmy Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedApril 15, 2003
DocketARMY 9901093
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 58 M.J. 704 (United States v. Tynes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Army Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Tynes, 58 M.J. 704, 2003 CCA LEXIS 101, 2003 WL 1883698 (acca 2003).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

HARVEY, Senior Judge:

A general court-martial composed of officer members convicted appellant, contrary to [705]*705his pleas, of conduct unbecoming an officer (four specifications); using a facility or means of interstate commerce to attempt to persuade, induce, or entice a person under the age of eighteen to engage in an unlawful sexual act (four specifications);1 traveling across state lines to engage in a sexual act with a person under the age of eighteen (two specifications);2 knowing receipt of child pornography transported in interstate commerce by computer (Specification 7 of Charge II),3 and knowing possession of computer diskettes containing three or more images of child pornography4 transported in interstate commerce by computer (Specification 8 of Charge II),5 in violation of Articles 133 and 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 933 and 934. The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence to a dismissal and confinement for thirty months, but suspended the dismissal for two years.

Appellant’s sentence was adjudged on 11 November 1999. On 18 May 2001, the Deputy Assistant Secretary, Army Review Boards, “suspend[ed] the remaining confinement until 23 May 2002 on condition of [appellant’s] submission of a request for voluntary excess leave6 to run concurrently with and for the duration of the suspension and any appellate review.” This case is before the court for review under Article 66, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 866.

We disagree with appellant’s second assignment of error that appellant’s convictions of Specifications 7 and 8 of Charge II must be dismissed because the definition of “child pornography” was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. We hold that the military judge’s failure to properly instruct the court members on the definition of child pornography constituted harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt. We also urge military judges to clearly explain the knowledge requirement for possession and receipt of material showing sexually explicit conduct.

FACTS

Appellant was fifty years of age when, in an America Online (AOL) chat room, he introduced himself to four females he believed to be minors under the age of fifteen. Thereafter, he privately communicated with them over the Internet, using instant messages and electronic mail (e-mail). Appellant sent them pictures of himself over the Internet: (1) in his Army uniform, (2) nude or with his penis exposed, and/or (3) of himself masturbating. Appellant asked one person he believed to be a female minor to sit naked in a chair and masturbate with her legs spread wide for the camera, and requested that she video tape herself “from the chest up, focused on [your] face as you touch yourself and cum.”

[706]*706Appellant sent numerous e-mail messages to a thirteen-year-old girl. He eventually told her that he wanted to drive to Louisville, Kentucky, to meet her and that he “desperately want[ed] to make love” to her. Appellant called her on the telephone, frightening her. She told appellant that she was grounded to discourage him from coming to her hometown to look for her. Appellant never drove to Louisville to meet her.

On his way to Virginia from temporary duty in Texas, appellant traveled three hundred miles out of his way to Birmingham, Alabama, to meet a female he believed to be a minor. Appellant rented a motel room and then contacted her via e-mail. He tried to convince her to sneak out of her home at night and meet him at his motel for sexual activity. However, after considerable e-mail discussion she declined to meet with appellant.

Three months later, appellant arranged for a stop-over in Chicago, Illinois, as he traveled by plane to Las Vegas on official Army business. Appellant rented a hotel room to meet with a female he believed to be a minor so that he could engage in sexual activity with her. He brought a video camera to his hotel room to film his anticipated activities. Appellant talked to her on the telephone to make final arrangements for their rendezvous outside his hotel. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents met appellant in front of his hotel and arrested him.

An FBI agent testified about what appellant said in his interview:

[A] year [ago] he began to get interested in younger girls, [ ] he found them appealing, and the idea of sex with them was exciting____he said he thought maybe it was the forbidden fruit aspect of the thought of having sex with a younger girl.

Appellant also stated that pornographic images of children under the age of eighteen were likely to be found on his home computer. FBI agents searched appellant’s residence and seized his computer hard drive, as well as ten computer diskettes locked in a box in appellant’s master bedroom closet. Over one hundred other computer diskettes were seized from his residence. Pictures or depictions stored in Grafics Interchange Format (GIF) computer files7 and Internet emails were saved on appellant’s computer hard drive and on the diskettes found at appellant’s residence.

Many of the diskettes contain one or two images that are child pornography. Some are attached to e-mails, and include e-mail messages, such as, “I like this one but you know i am not like bad an[d] slutty or nothin[g] like that” (attached under file name “UU13fk.jpg”). Two of the ten diskettes found inside the box in appellant’s bedroom closet contain at least three images of child pornography. All six images described in the next paragraph were saved on more than one diskette.

Diskette number three includes images depicting: (1) a nude female minor with the photograph taken at an upward angle to emphasize her vagina (under file name “ÜÜÜ11.JPG”); (2) two nude female minors masturbating (under file name “GIRLS. JPG”); and (3) one nude female minor licking another nude female minor’s nipple and spreading her vagina’s labia with her fingers (under file name “15 & 16LEZ.JPG”). Diskette number four includes images depicting: (1) a partially clothed female minor with her breasts and vagina exposed (under file name “Ü14CUTE.JPG”); (2) a nude female minor performing oral sex on an adult male (under file name “ÜÜIDAD.JPG”); and (3) an adult male penetrating the vagina of a female minor with his penis (under file name “!!!!13fk.jpg”).

During appellant’s testimony on the merits, he said that he intentionally saved items to the diskettes found in the box in his closet, and that he had fantasized about sexual activities with thirteen and fourteen-year-old girls.

The defense presented no evidence or argument at trial that supports appellant’s position on appeal — that the images do not depict real children. The defense did not [707]*707assert that appellant was ignorant of how the images reflected sexually explicit conduct. The defense did not make a motion to dismiss based upon the images depicting adults and not minors, or upon an allegation that 18 U.S.C. § 2256

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 M.J. 704, 2003 CCA LEXIS 101, 2003 WL 1883698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-tynes-acca-2003.