United States v. Dauray
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
215 F.3d 257 (2000)
Charles Dauray (defendant) was found with 13 unbound magazine pictures of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and was indicted under 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B), which criminalizes possessing three or more books, magazines, films, or "other matter" containing such images. Dauray argued each loose picture was itself a "visual depiction," and so could not also be the "other matter" that contains one — meaning the statute did not reach his conduct as charged. The district court rejected this reading, denied Dauray's request for the rule of lenity, and a jury convicted him; Dauray appealed.
Whether, in a criminal prosecution, the rule of lenity requires ambiguities in a statute to be resolved in the defendant's favor to ensure fair warning of the prohibited conduct as required by due process.