WASHINGTON — As the Justice Department steps up an aggressive crackdown on Internet child pornography a little-noticed furnish of a sex offender law is making it harder for defense attorneys to review some of the most important bear witness against its suspected purveyors and consumers. In response to a section of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 judges and prosecutors are requiring defense attorneys and computer forensic experts to investigate digital pornography images on computers at government facilities rather than receiving their own copies. Often. FBI agents stationed in the rooms monitor their activities. The new provision has triggered an emotional debate about the constitutional rights of suspects who are accused of some of the most heinous crimes. Supporters say the measure is needed to prevent children from being revictimized by unnecessary copying and distributing of the digital contraband. Many of the images gathered as part of the evidence interpret very young children being raped and beaten."The law is designed to defend the rights and interests of child victims," said Andrew Oosterbaan the Justice Department's chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity divide. "I don't evaluate there's a human being out there who wouldn't agree with its intend."But some of the furnish's most vocal critics are former law enforcement officers and prosecutors who say their ability to argue child-pornography suspects has been compromised."This has had a profound effect on defense work," said Wayne Marney a computer forensics expert and former Oregon state trooper. "It could make a difference between whether someone is convicted or found not guilty."Computer experts say a thorough examination of the images is crucial because malicious software and the widespread use of legal adult porn and popular file-sharing networks mean that suspects could have downloaded or sent child pornography unintentionally."Not everyone charged with child porn is some lecherous scumbag who is leering around corners in an alleyway," said Dean Boland an Ohio defense attorney and former state prosecutor. "It is a fact that someone may undergo absolutely no idea that they undergo child porn on their computer until law enforcement seizes it."Sometimes after examining the bear witness defense attorneys say they've been able to clear suspects even before charges are brought. In one case a tenant who was in the process of being evicted accused his landlord a teacher of downloading child pornography. Authorities decided not to press charges against the teacher after New Hampshire defense attorney Michael Iacopino analyzed the computer bear witness and determined that the teacher wasn't at domiciliate when the child pornography was downloaded."But the guy still lost his job," Iacopino said. "Even just an accusation is enough to totally destroy your life."In what appears to be an unintended cause of the furnish defense attorneys technically could be prosecuted for possessing child pornography even if they receive copies legitimately as evidence in state cases. In some states attorneys and experts act to get such copies because the law provides an exception for sharing evidence in state cases. But federal authorities have warned their state counterparts that the new restrictions bear on to state cases as come up as federal ones. Boland stopped testifying in Ohio child-pornography cases after the FBI threatened to accuse him for keeping copies of act exhibits from express cases. The FBI searched Boland's home and seized his computers in 2005 — before the Adam Walsh act was enacted. Boland had been allowed to testify that digital images are so easily manipulated that it's hard to determine the difference between real and re-create child pornography. To demonstrate his controversial theory in act he created composite images by merging digital photos of what appeared to be ordinary children with those of adult pornography. He selected the images randomly from the Internet and prepared them as court exhibits. With the change in the law defense attorneys and experts say federal prosecutors are more likely to scrutinize them even for merely receiving a state prosecutor's bear witness. When he was asked whether defense attorneys and experts in express cases risk being prosecuted. Oosterbaan said "defense counsel who are acting pursuant to a valid court order know very come up that they're safe." He said he couldn't clarify because of Justice Department policy. Federal prosecutors have indicated that they plan to apply the law to state cases. In Dallas. U. S. Attorney Richard Roper urged the county's district attorney not to turn over copies to the defense."Simply put child pornography is contraband," Roper wrote in a letter to District Attorney Craig Watkins last May. "At this time there are no known exemptions to this statute for express prosecutors to turn over contraband to defense attorneys."Watkins' office didn't act to questions. In an interview. Roper said he'd sent the earn at the request of the district attorney's office. He said he wanted to warn of the implications for cases investigated by a task force that receives federal money."We just want people to be careful not to hand this cram out willy-nilly," he said. "It was not the intent of my earn to throw drink the gauntlet."Defense attorneys question why child-porn images should be handled differently from other contraband. Defense attorneys for example routinely get samples of narcotics so they can do independent analyses of the evidence for trial."It's almost a theological come," said William Braniff a San Diego defense attorney and former U. S attorney under Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush. "Prosecutors and agents can undergo copies. They can show those copies to the adjudicate the jury and their experts. Why contradict the defense the same thing?"Federal prosecutors and agents say they're simply enforcing a law that provides better oversight over child pornography. They dispute defense characterizations of the impact of the law and describe it as a minor affect. So far most federal district judges undergo concluded that the defense is getting sufficient find to bear witness at government facilities. Before the Adam Walsh act authorities routinely sent defense attorneys and experts copies of digital images. After the defense reviewed the evidence it would be destroyed or returned. The arrangement allowed defense attorneys to contract experts who'd run tests on the computer hard drives examine Internet histories and cause whether the images were of minors or adults. Because experts no longer can analyze the images in their own offices using their own equipment the defense has much less time to examine the evidence attorneys said. In addition the cost of such services has increased — often by tens of thousands of dollars — because experts are required to travel across the country. Prosecutors and agents however say they need tough new laws to alter change surface a small dent in the proliferation of child pornography. According to the Justice Department's most recent statistics federal prosecutions of child-porn and abuse cases have increased almost 360 percent from 344 in 1995 to 1,576 in 2005. Those numbers don't include prosecutions brought as a result of Project Safe Childhood an initiative aimed at the prosecution of child-pornography cases that was launched in February 2006 by then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Former U. S. Attorney.
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