Assessing Current Restitution Law to
Effectively Serve Victims in Child Abuse Imagery Cases *

This article discusses the Marsh Law Firm's pioneering work to secure criminal restitution for our client Amy. It appeared in the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse Update earlier this year, before our appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The NCPCA Update can be downloaded in full here. by Angela Downes, Meg Garvin, Wanda Lucibello, Alison Wilkinson, Terry Campos, and Hon. Paul Cassell2 Amy was only four years old when her uncle sexually assaulted her and documented that assault through photographs. Although the assault took place in 1993, now nearly 20 years later those photographs continue to circulate on the Internet and are among ...

Child Pornography Restitution Now Before the Supreme Court

Two years ago, the Marsh Law Firm filed the first-ever request for federal criminal restitution against a convicted child pornography collector. Since then, we have filed over 700 requests for restitution in every federal district court in the country. Despite a few decisive victories, a child pornography victim's right to restitution is being curtailed in circuit after circuit. Recent federal Circuit Court decisions have effectively barred restitution in the Second and Ninth Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit. Only in the Fifth Circuit—encompassing the states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi—is restitution still mandatory....

New York Times Reports on Marsh Law Firm’s Restitution Efforts

In a follow-up to a February 2010 profile of the Marsh Law Firm's groundbreaking work pursuing federal criminal restitution for victims of child pornography, the New York Times released this story today about a decision in the Second Circuit. A victim of child pornography seeking restitution should not receive court-ordered payments from those who possessed the images but had no hand in creating them, a federal appeals panel ruled Thursday. The young woman, referred to in court papers as Amy, was known as “Misty” in pornographic images created by her uncle. The uncle was convicted and imprisoned on child pornography charges, but the ...

Darkness of Child Sex Abuse Leads to Suicide

Bill Zeller, a Princeton Ph.D candidate and renowned internet programmer, died Wednesday from injuries sustained in a suicide attempt. He was 27. Zeller stunned everyone with a 4,000-word suicide note detailing a childhood of physical and sexual abuse which he had never before disclosed to anyone. Presumably, Zeller's sexual abuse was not captured on film for the entire pedophile world to share and celebrate repeatedly in perpetuity. Sadly, most child pornography defendants minimize the impact of their criminal behavior on victims who can never escape this constant reminder of their initial abuse and exploitation. Unfortunately, many judges agree ...

Current Restitution Law is Failing Child Pornography Victims

Legislators and courts have long recognized what common sense makes clear - children depicted in child abuse images[1] are harmed not only by the sexual abuse captured by the images, but also by the subsequent distribution, possession, and viewing of the images of their abuse.[2] Legislators and courts have similarly recognized the importance of awarding restitution to victims who are harmed by crime to help make them whole, and to aid in their recovery.[3] Thus, it seems a straightforward proposition that children depicted in child abuse images should be awarded restitution from their offenders, including those offenders who possess and view their ...

Restitution for Child Porn Victims – The Debate Continues

Broadcast today on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU in Washington, DC: Traditionally, courts have punished those convicted of possessing child pornography with heavy jail time. But in a growing trend, victims are demanding that offenders pay restitution too. The approach is generating debate about how far courts can go in punishing people who are caught with pornography, but aren't the direct perpetrators of the crime. Listen to the re-broadcast here.

Los Angles Times and ABCNews.com – restitution stories proliferate

In two separate stories today, the Los Angeles Times and ABCNews.com consider the issue of restitution for victims of child pornography and contribute new information to the debate (which still to me doesn't seem like much of a debate): From the LATimes: The issue of criminal restitution in child pornography possession cases emerged last February in Connecticut when a federal judge said he would order a man convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography to pay about $200,000 to Amy. The judge said it was the first criminal case in which someone convicted of possessing illegal images — but not creating them — would be required ...

1
2
s