Lead Opinion
SCHWARZER, D.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which GIBBONS, J., joined. DAUGHTREY, J. (p. 616), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
OPINION
Henry G. McGrattan appeals his twenty-year sentence for (1) using a computer connected to the internet to persuade a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, and (2) knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography. The district court concluded that based on a prior Ohio state offense, a higher fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence applied to the first count. Because the Ohio offense does not categorically qualify as a prior offense under federal law, and because the government has not provided sufficient documentation of McGrattan’s actual conduct in that offense, we vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing consistent with this opinion.
BACKGROUND
On February 22, 2001, Henry G. McGrattan pled guilty to a misdemeanor attempted violation of Ohio Rev.Code section 2907.323(A)(3). According to the 1999 warrant affidavit of an FBI agent, McGrattan had sent several explicit photographs of underage boys and girls to an undercover Illinois detective.
As detailed in an affidavit of complaint, from March through June of 2005, McGrattan sent pictures to and attempted to meet with an FBI agent posing as a twelve-year-old girl on the America Online internet service. On June 29, 2005, McGrattan was indicted on one count of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b) for using a computer connected to the internet to persuade a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and one count of violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) for knowingly receiv
The district court found that McGrat-tan’s Ohio conviction qualified as a prior conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l), raising the mandatory minimum for the child pornography offense from five to fifteen years. The district court also verbally explained the Guidelines calculations for both counts, resulting in a range of 262 to 327 months. The court acknowledged that McGrattan had raised and preserved several objections to the Guidelines calculations, but decided that because Count 1 carried a 5-year mandatory minimum and Count 2 carried a 15-year mandatory minimum (with a prior conviction), and it was sentencing McGrattan to the mandatory minimum of 240 months, it need not address those objections.
On December 21, 2005, the district court sentenced McGrattan to 20 years’ imprisonment, 5 years’ supervised release, and a mandatory $200 assessment. McGrattan timely appealed.
DISCUSSION
I. APPLICATION OF THE CATEGORICAL APPROACH
McGrattan’s primary contention is that the district court erred by finding that his conviction under Ohio Rev. Code section 2907.323(A)(3) qualified as a prior conviction for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l). He argues that the statutory elements of his prior misdemeanor conviction under section 2907.323 do not sufficiently overlap with 18 U.S.C. § 2256(8) (defining “child pornography”) to result in a predicate child pornography offense under section 2252A(b)(l) in all instances.
We review de novo the district court’s legal conclusion that a prior conviction is a qualifying offense. See, e.g., United States v. Armstead,
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l) provides that a violator of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2) shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 5 years and not more than 20 years, but, if such person has a prior conviction under ... the laws of any State relating to ... the production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or transportation of child pornography, ... such person shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not less than 15 years nor more than 40 years.
18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l). 18 U.S.C. § 2256 defines “child pornography” as any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where—
(A) the production of such visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; ...
Finally, “sexually explicit conduct” is defined as “(i) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; (ii) bestiality; (iii) masturbation; (iv) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or (v) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person; ...” 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A).
The Ohio statute under which McGrat-tan was convicted makes it illegal to “[plossess or view any material or performance that shows a minor who is not the person’s child or ward in a state of nudity.” Ohio Rev.Code section
Thus, the question is whether McGrat-tan’s Ohio conviction qualifies as “a conviction ... under the laws of a State relating to ... the ... possession, receipt, ... [or] distribution ... of any visual depiction ... [which] involves the use of a minor engaging in ... lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person” under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l).
The government’s principal argument is that the state conviction qualifies as a predicate offense because it relates to the same conduct-child pornography-prohibited by section 2252A(b)(l). We look first to the Supreme Court’s explication of the general principles governing the application of enhancements based on state convictions.
In Taylor v. United States,
In Shepard v. United States,
The government cites cases from four circuits to support its argument that Taylor and Shepard do not apply to the enhancement provision in 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. In United States v. Rezin,
In United States v. McCutchen,
We do not believe that the cases the government offers make a persuasive argument for abandoning the Taylor-Shepard analytical framework in cases arising under section 2252A(b)(l). The underlying concern is the protection of the defendant’s jury trial right under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Shepard,
Because nothing in the Ohio statute requires actual sexual activity, the only way in which it will categorically fall within the federal “child pornography” definition is if crimes under that statute must involve “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person.” The narrowed Ohio statute covers “nudity [which] constitutes a lewd exhibition or involves a graphic focus on the genitals.” Osborne,
Ohio law is not clear on exactly how section 2907.323(A)(3) should be interpreted. If the statute is read by ignoring the disjunctive “or,” it will only cover lewd exhibitions of the genitals, and therefore will fall entirely within the federal definition of child pornography. In fact, the United States Supreme Court in Osborne indicated that it believed that “[t]he context of the opinion [below] indicates that the Ohio Supreme Court believed that ‘the term “nudity” ... refers to a lewd exhibition of the genitals.’ ” Osborne,
In State v. Kerrigan,
Several Ohio state cases have addressed a related, but distinct question: whether a depiction which constitutes a graphic focus on the genitals must be lewd in order to qualify under section 2907.323(A)(3). In State v. Walker,
Even if the Ohio statute is read so that “lewd exhibition” does not require depiction of the genitals, it does not end the inquiry. In James v. United States, the United States Supreme Court clarified the Taylor categorical approach in the context of violent felonies:
We do not view that approach as requiring that every conceivable factual offense covered by a statute must necessarily present a serious potential risk of injury before the offense can be deemed a violent felony. Rather, the proper inquiry is whether the conduct encompassed by the elements of the offense, in the ordinary case, presents a • serious potential risk of injury to another.
James v. United States, — U.S.-,
to find that a state statute creates a crime outside the generic definition of a listed crime in a federal statute requires more than the application of legal imagination to a state statute’s language. It requires a realistic probability, not a theoretical possibility, that the State would apply its statute to conduct that falls outside the generic definition of a crime.
Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez, — U.S. -,
First, under Ohio law, “nudity” is defined as the showing, representation, or depiction of human male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttocks with less than a full, opaque covering, or of a female breast with less than a full, opaque covering of any portion thereof below the top of the nipple, or of covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.
Ohio Rev.Code section 2907.01(H). Under that definition, “nudity” clearly covers representations which include the breast or buttocks, but which do not focus on or even include the genitals or pubic area.
While we are not aware of any cases in which the Ohio Supreme Court has explicitly addressed a situation involving a “lewd exhibition” which did not involve the genitals or pubic area of any person or where Ohio has prosecuted someone entirely on the basis of such materials, the analysis of section 2907.323(A)(3) performed by several other Ohio courts makes it clear that such a possibility is contemplated by the law.
In State v. Powell, the Ohio Court of Appeals upheld a conviction under section
In State v. Stoner,
It does not matter what precedential weight Ohio state courts give these decisions.
II. USE OF THE WARRANT AFFIDAVIT
Because McGrattan’s prior conviction is not based on a statute whose elements fall within the federal definition of child pornography, we must next determine whether the conduct upon which that conviction was based, as shown by documents allowable under Shepard, falls within that definition. The government’s argument is that the conduct underlying McGrattan’s Ohio conviction is the exact same scenario underlying the conviction in the instant case: McGrattan conversed with a purported minor over the internet
[a]n affidavit of complaint is a type of record that a district court can properly rely on in determining the nature of predicate offenses, consistent with the standards of Shepard. Complaints are judicial documents, filed under oath and submitted in furtherance of formal prosecution. They bear, accordingly, substantially greater indicia of reliability than mere police reports, which are not filed in court, are not sworn to, and are developed for an investigatory purpose.
Id. at 780. Shepard explicitly allowed “the terms of the charging document” to be considered in making the determination under Taylor. A warrant affidavit does not fill the bill. It is more akin to the police report or complaint applications ruled inadmissable in Shepard because it is not “in furtherance of formal prosecution” and thus does not determine whether an earlier plea or conviction was for a generic offense. Id. at 780. Because it was intended only to establish probable cause for the search, it does not necessarily describe the conduct for which McGrattan was convicted. In this case, as in Shepard, the record is silent on the generic element, there being no plea agreement, plea colloquy or comparable judicial record. See Shepard,
Accordingly, the warrant affidavit is not admissible to establish McGrattan’s conduct for the purpose of determining whether his prior conviction falls within the scope of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l). Because no other documentation of McGrattan’s actual conduct of conviction was submitted to the court, his Ohio conviction cannot be a predicate offense under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l). Should other documentation be provided at resentencing, the district court will need to decide whether its use is permissible under Shepard.
III. CONCLUSION
In addition to the above arguments, McGrattan contends that the district court’s decision to sentence him to consecutive rather than concurrent terms was unreasonable, that the mandatory minimums were constitutionally unreasonable, and that there were several errors in the United States Sentencing Guidelines calculations.
Notes
. McGrattan asserts that the Ohio statute's language requires only 'nudity,” which is much broader than the statutory definition of "child pornography” under federal law. This, however, ignores the narrowing of the Ohio statute in Osborne. McGrattan has given no reason why this panel should ignore the construction of the statute which had been used by Ohio courts for almost ten years before McGrattan’s Ohio crime, or why the “statutory definition” in Taylor and "the laws of any State relating to” in 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(b)(l) only refer to the uninterpreted statutory text, and so we apply the narrowed language under Osborne in our analysis. See James v. United States, - U.S. -, 127 S.Cl. 1586, 1594,
. The government does not argue that the federal requirement of exhibiting the "genitals or pubic area” should be read broadly to include other forms of nudity, and such a reading is precluded by the plain language of the statute. See, e.g., United States v. Gleich,
. As of May 1, 2002, Ohio abolished the distinction between published and unpublished opinions for purposes of precedent. Ohio R. Ct., R. Reporting Opinions 4.
. The dissent suggests that we send this case to the Ohio Supreme Court with a certified question asking whether section 2907.323(A)(3) applies only to “a lewd exhibition of the genitals." While a clear answer to this question would assist prosecutors and judges in both the state and federal courts in future cases, it would not assist us in deciding this one. The question we must answer is whether there is a reasonable probability that the statute would have been applied to McGrattan in 2001, and as a result McGrat-tan’s conduct which gave rise to that conviction could have fallen outside the scope of the federal statute. Given the ambiguity in the narrowed statutory language and the holdings of Ohio state cases discussed above, we have answered that question in the affirmative.
. Because the district court did not use the Sentencing Guidelines calculations, McGrat-tan may argue his objections at resentencing.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Because, as the majority opinion makes clear, the Ohio Supreme Court’s interpretation of Ohio Revised Code section 2907.323(A)(3) has proven to be linguistically difficult at least and thoroughly ambiguous at most, I would send this case to
Was the United States Supreme Court, in its opinion in Osborne v. Ohio, correct in assuming that “[t]he context of the opinion [below] indicates that the Ohio Supreme Court believed that ‘the term “nudity” as used in R[evised] C[ode] 2907.323(A)(3) refers to a lewd exhibition of the genitals’ ”? Osborne,495 U.S. 103 , 114 n. 11,110 S.Ct. 1691 ,109 L.Ed.2d 98 (1990) (citing State v. Young,37 Ohio St.3d 249 ,525 N.E.2d 1363 , 1373 (Ohio 1988) (emphasis added)).
The Ohio Supreme Court has never clarified this ambiguity, and the Ohio Courts of Appeals have rendered inconsistent opinions on the question. Compare, e.g., State v. Walker,
