SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court has tossed out a man’s child pornography conviction and 18-year prison sentence because of illegal government surveillance.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that it was illegal for the U.S. Navy’s to use a high-powered software program to search private computers throughout the state of Washington for child pornography. The U.S. Department of Justice justified the search by arguing that the Navy investigator was searching for child pornography on military installations in Washington when he came across a private computer containing illegal images.
The 9th Circuit rejected that argument, ruling that the computer search violated a law barring the U.S. military from taking part in civilian law enforcement activities.
