New Hampshire v. Norman

Defendant Robert Norman appealed his convictions on seven counts of possession of child sexual abuse images following a bench trial on stipulated facts in Superior Court. On appeal, he argued the superior court erred by denying his motion to suppress in which he argued that the affidavit submitted in support of the search warrant application failed to establish probable cause that his electronic devices would contain child sexual abuse images. He also argued the evidence was insufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the images associated with the seven indictments depicted sexually explicit conduct. Furthermore, defendant challenged three of the indictments on the ground that the images associated with them did not depict a child. Viewing the affidavit in a common-sense manner and considering the totality of the circumstances, the New Hampshire Supreme Court concluded the magistrate did not have a substantial basis for finding that there was a fair probability that child sexual abuse images would be found on defendant’s electronic devices. In this case, the images that the officers viewed on defendant’s laptop were of adult women “in various stages of undress and positions,” girls in sundresses, and female teenagers in cheerleader outfits. The affidavit did not allege that any of the images the police viewed constituted child sexual abuse images. The Supreme Court reversed defendant's conviction and remanded for further proceedings. View "New Hampshire v. Norman" on Justia Law