What is the probative value of the clips shown to the jury in a child pornography case?

In weighing the probative value of the images against the danger of unfair prejudice, we emphasize that each of the clips was derived from files charged in the indictment; the images shown to the jury were thus not extrinsic to the crime charged "but rather a part of the actual pornography possessed." See United States v. Dodds, 347 F.3d 893, 898 (11th Cir.2003). Even more importantly, for every image shown to the jury there was forensic evidence that the files had actually been opened and viewed after downloading. This is what makes this case distinguishable from United States v. Merino-Balderrama, in which we reversed a conviction for possession of child pornography where the district court erroneously allowed the government to show excerpts from child pornography films found in the trunk of the defendant's car. See 146 F.3d at 760. Seeking to keep the films from the jury's view, the defendant had offered to stipulate that the films were child pornography and had traveled in interstate commerce. Id. at 761. In Merino, however, it had been undisputed that the defendant never saw the actual filmsonly the box covers, which depicted images that turned out to be stills taken from the movies within. This is a crucial distinction, because in conducting the Rule 403 analysis, we emphasized that the films, which had not been viewed by the defendant, were considerably less probative to scienter than the box covers, which the defendant had seen. Id. at 761-63. In this case, the images themselves were probative of scienter in a way that was simply absent in Merino-Balderrama.