United States v. John Doe, United States of America v. John Doe

We must decide whether restitution can be awarded to the overseas child victims of sexual exploitation crimes committed by an American citizen while he was traveling outside the United States.

I

A

Between July 2003 and November 2004, John Doe, a citizen of the United States, traveled to his native country three times. On November 4, 2004, Doe was returning through Los Angeles International Airport with his mother when inspectors discovered digital child pornography images stored on a memory stick taped to the inside of a “fifth pocket” on a pair of jeans. The roughly 500 pictures displayed images of naked boys who appeared to be between 12 and 14 years old. One series of pictures portrayed Doe performing sex acts upon a minor child. Doe confessed that he had taken the pictures of the naked children and explained that they were part of a dance group of which he was a sponsor.

On the night that Doe was arrested, he called his brother and instructed him to destroy evidence at defendant’s home. The brother removed a laptop computer along with 56 CDs and a brown envelope containing child pornography from his brother’s house. The CDs contained over 1,000 images of child pornography.…