A Rare, Justified Long Child Pornography Sentence

While there are many sentences for child pornography crimes that are clearly and grossly excessive, the 50-year federal sentence of imprisonment imposed on the 46-year old man convicted of producing child pornography a recent case is not one of them.

The defendant pleaded guilty to four counts of producing child pornography. 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a). He produced them by photographing his repeated sexual assaults on a girl who was a friend of his daughters and sometimes slept over at his house.

He obtained additional pornographic images of her by threatening to kill her unless she photographed herself in sexually explicit poses and emailed him the images. The abuses began when she was 11 years old and continued until she was 14.

From a recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Judge Posner, however, rightly notes in a concurring opinion, that the ends of justice could have been achieved, for example, with a 30 year term, at a far lower public cost.