United States v. Grzybowicz
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
747 F.3d 1296 (2014)
Michael Grzybowicz (defendant) briefly watched a friend's young daughter during an outing, and images of a man molesting the child were later found emailed to a password-protected folder on Grzybowicz's own computer, discovered after his wife grew suspicious and searched his phone and computer. The government charged Grzybowicz with distributing child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2), but the trial evidence showed only that the images had been emailed from one of his own devices to his own password-protected profile, with no evidence he shared the password, uploaded the images anywhere public, or otherwise gave any other person access. The jury convicted him on the distribution count, and he appealed.
Whether a conviction for distributing electronic images of child pornography under federal law requires proof that the defendant made the images available to another person.