Child Pornography Sentence Stands Despite Guideline Change

A defendant who pleaded guilty to receiving and possessing child pornography can’t benefit from a subsequent change in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines that would reduce his sentence, the Third Circuit said.

The amendment was a substantive change to the guidelines, rather than a clarification, thus doesn’t apply retroactively, the opinion by Judge Marjorie O. Rendell said.

When Maximus Prophet was sentenced, the applicable guideline allowed an enhancement because he shared his files on a peer-to-peer network, but he always maintained that he didn’t know his files were available to others.

At the time, the federal circuit courts of appeals were ...