U.S. v. Fletcher

In prosecution on charge of production of child pornography under 18 USC section 2251(a), Ct. of Appeals rejected defendant's claim that section 2251(a) was unconstitutional because it did not require that govt. prove that defendant was aware of victim's age at time of pornography's production, and it did not allow defendant to assert mistake-of-age defense. Moreover, Dist. Ct. properly denied defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal based on alleged violation of federal govt.'s internal Petite policy that generally precluded successive state and federal prosecutions for same crime, after court found that, although state had previously prosecuted defendant for essentially same child pornography offense, Petite policy did not create substantive right that could be enforced by defendant.