http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0306/309600.html
Since this is old news, and dont know if its
been posted before, I'd like to post this
here. (If you want to move it to the main
news submit, up to you.)
"Man Sentenced To 20 Years for Child Porn
Convictions"
Friday March 10, 2006 8:55pm
Richmond, Va. (AP) - A man who used a public
computer at state offices to receive child
pornography depicted in highly stylized
cartoons will spend 20 years in prison.
Dwight Whorley, 52, was sentenced Friday.
He's the first person convicted under a 2003
federal law that criminalizes the production
or distribution of drawings or cartoons
showing the sexual abuse of children.
A court found Whorley guilty on November 30
of using a computer at a Virginia Employment
Commission office in March 2004. Authorities
say he received 20 Japanese anime cartoons
that graphically depicted minors engaged in
sex with adults.
Whorley's child pornography conviction was
the first under the statute that was NOT
based on actual photographs of children.
Whorley was convicted on 74 count
some response from slashdot:
"I recently blogged on this issue because
I'd discovered that a Virginia man (Dwight
Whorley) was sentenced to 20 years in jail
for downloading cartoon pornography [wjla.com].
I don't think Whorley or his ilk are the
best arguments for the importance and
necessity of free speech, but Whorley's
plight is of particular concern because the
material he has been convicted of
downloading was concocted from imagination.
They were cartoons. In other words, Whorley
has been jailed for what can only be seen as
pure speech. Whether the current
administration really is interested in
protecting society from child pornographers
is irrelevant. Whorley's successful
conviction and extraordinary sentencing set
the precedent that pure expression (which
may have harmed no one) can be found illegal.
We live in dangerous times and I worry that
it won't be long before critics of the US
government and/or political opponents of the
powerful find themselves in straits similar
to Whorley's.
Well, it says it's a 2003 law, I assume this
is a new one after the Supreme court struck
down the last one in 2002.
Yep, it's a new one, and they haven't tested
it in the Supreme Court yet.
I assume this one will do the same, I
certainly don't feel I'd have anything to
lose that point... 20 years for downloading
anime, perhaps resembling real but still...
in my country you wouldn't get that if you
abducted and violently raped a real
girl.Actually, if I remember correctly, Mr.
Whorely also possessed *actual* child
pornography. However, the non-photographic
artwork that he possessed weighed heavily
upon his sentence.
Think about it: This artwork harmed no one
in the making. Mr. Whorely didn't harm
anyone by possessing it. One can't even make
the argument that he was harming himself by
looking at it, unless you want to really
stretch it and say that it was causing him
psychological trauma or somesuch drivel.
Actual child porn aside, this was a
nonviolent thought crime, pure and simple.
If someone can be convicted for viewing
ficticious criminal activity against a child
why has the same not happened to those that
produce and consume other fictional criminal
activity, like The Godfather or even the
movie Hostel, which I found stomach turning?
It is nothing more than thought crime."
Mike (Shmoo)
gfmlcka
TrueAudio
Dreddsnik
