Man gets longer term for porn clips

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania man who successfully appealed his conviction and 17 1/2-year prison sentence by arguing a judge prejudiced a jury by showing them too many clips of the violent child pornography he collected has been resentenced — to an even longer prison term.

A federal judge in Pittsburgh says 39-year-old David Cunningham, of Eighty-Four, must spend 20 years in prison.

Cunningham was first convicted and sentenced in 2010. A federal appeals court overturned that decision after Cunningham’s attorney argued there was no reason to show the clips from videos found on Cunningham’s computer because he acknowledged they contained child pornography.

The trial judge showed the clips anyway, agreeing with prosecutors that jurors needed to see the violent nature of the pornography.

Cunningham’s attorney argued unsuccessfully that the new sentence shouldn’t exceed the original term imposed.