Fourth Circuit vacates CP transportation convictions as multiplicitous

The Fourth Circuit vacated 26 convictions for transporting child pornography as plain error of multiplicity in United States v. Buczkowski, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 25190 (4th Cir. 2011).

The defendant had been charged with possession and transportation of child pornography after a computer repairman found 27 images of child pornography on defendant's computer. The images were of his niece, some of which were pictures of the defendant and niece engaging in sexual acts. The defendant had been working for a military contractor in Iraq, and because he transported the images "using any means ... of foreign commerce", he was subject to the transportation charge.

At trial, he was convicted of 27 counts of transportation, but on appeal, he argued that the additional counts were multiplicitous. The court found that "[t]he central focus of the statute is the act of transporting, not the number of individual images transported." Therefore, only one count should have been charged. Because the defendant raised the issue for the first time on appeal, the court reviewed under plain-error, and found that the convictions should be vacated.