US v. Schnittker: Schnittker was charged with two counts related to child pornography, one for receipt and one for possession. The charges were based on evidence found during a search of his home, including two hard drives, one Western Digital and one Maxtor. Both counts of the indictment spoke generally of "child pornography" being possessed, but during plea negotiations the Government informed Schnittker that the possession charge would be based on images found on the Western Digital drive, while the receipt charge was based on images found on the Maxtor drive. Although the drives had some overlap in terms of images, each had images unique to it. Schnittker pleaded guilty to the possession charge. The statement of facts at the plea hearing referenced the Western Digital drive, but didn't mention the Maxtor. Schnittker then went to trial on the receipt charge, where the Government used his guilty plea on the possession charge as 404(b) evidence against him. The district court denied Schnittker's motion to dismiss that charge on double jeopardy grounds and convicted him on receipt.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision denying Schnittker's double jeopardy challenge. The court assumed that the two offenses (possession and receipt) were the "same in law" and moved on to determine they were also "the same in fact." The court concluded that they were not because of the different sources of the images at issue in each charge, holding that an "objective person in Schnittker's position would have understood that he was pleading guilty to possession . . . only in regard to the child pornography on the Western Digital hard drive." Because the receipt charge involved the Maxtor drive and at least one unique image from that drive "the two offense at issue in this case were not the same in fact."
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