ALBANY (AP) -- New York's top court says simply viewing child pornography online does not constitute either criminal possession or procurement under state penal law.
The Court of Appeals is dismissing two counts against James D. Kent, who was a professor of public administration at Marist College, where a virus scan of his computer in 2007 found pornographic images. He was convicted of two counts of procuring and 134 counts of possessing child porn.
The Court of Appeals agrees Kent was properly convicted because he had downloaded, saved and deleted 132 images. But the majority says some images in his computer cache, temporary files automatically stored from porn sites he viewed, cannot be held against him under state law.
The five judges said it's still a federal crime.
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