Possession of Multiple CP Files Can Result in Only One Count of Conviction

In Edvalson v. State, the defendant was convicted for the possession of, and possession with intent to distribute, 11 digital images of child pornography, in violation of Georgia Code Section OCGA § 16-12-100(b). He was indicted and convicted on 22 separate counts and received consecutive sentences totaling 60 years in prison.

The Georgia Supreme Court, however, vacated his sentence and held that it was error for the defendant to be sentenced for more than one count since the offense involved just a single course of conduct. In doing so, the Court focused the inquiry on the precise conduct criminalized by the statute to determine what the legislature intended the “unit of prosecution” to be.

Coates v. State: Determining the Unit of Prosecution

In the Court’s 2018 decision in Coates, it was called upon to determine the appropriate unit of prosecution for a case involving the possession of multiple firearms by a convicted felon. Looking to the language of the statute in question (a convicted felon “who receives, possesses, or transports any firearm…”), the Court focused its analysis on the use of the word “any” by the legislature.

Recognizing that the term “any” can be used in both the qualitative and quantitative sense, the Court next looked to the interplay between this and the use of the word in the statute’s definition of firearm – which defines “firearm” as “any handgun, rifle, shotgun, or other weapon…”

In doing this, the Court found that the use of the word “any” in the statute referred not to the qualities of the firearm but to the quantity – in that the quantity was without limit. This was consistent with the legislative purpose of the statute which is to punish “the general receipt, possession, or transportation of firearms by convicted felons.” Therefore, the Court concluded that the language of the statute would permit only a single conviction regardless of the number of firearms involved.

Application to the Child Pornography Statute

Likewise, OCGA § 16-12-100 prohibits the possession of “any visual medium which depicts a minor or a portion of a minor’s body engaged in any sexually explicit conduct.” Applying the rationale from Coates, the Court found that the word “any” in this statute must be interpreted in the quantitative sense, implying that the quantity here is also without limit. The Court held that “[a]s in Coates, the offense is the possession of any prohibited ‘visual medium’ at all, whether one or one hundred.”

The Court also noted that criminal statutes must be construed against the State. This means that any ambiguities should be resolved in favor of the defendant. Failing to do this could pose a risk of the defendant being convicted of multiple crimes for the same offense. This would violate defendants’ due process rights and constitute double jeopardy by subjecting them to multiple prosecutions and sentences for a single offense.

Thus, the Georgia Supreme Court vacated the defendant’s 60-year prison sentence and remanded the case back to the trial court for resentencing.