Thursday, December 1, 2011

Washington court reverses sexual exploitation of minor conviction

The Washington Court of Appeals recently reversed a sexual exploitation of a minor conviction because the defendant only asked a child to send a nude photograph, but the child never took or sent the picture. Throughout the e-mail exchange, the defendant repeatedly asked the child to send nude pictures, but she refused to do so.

The statute makes it a crime if a person “[a]ids, invites, employs, authorizes, or causes a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, knowing that such conduct will be photographed or part of a live performance.” The court distinguished the statutory text of "will be" from the alternate "could be," finding that simply asking a child to take and send nude images was not illegal under this statute.

Stribling was also convicted of attempted possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct conviction and six counts of felony communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

The case is State v. Stribling, 267 P.3d 403 (Wash. Ct. App. 2011).

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