State of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Craig Randall Backlund, Defendant and Appellant. Backes, Judge. Opinion of the Court by Kapsner, Justice. Jonathan R. Box , Fargo, N. Robert G. Hoy, Ohnstad Twichell, P. Box , West Fargo, N. We hold North Dakota had jurisdiction to prosecute Backlund, N.
We affirm. He exchanged computer messages containing sexual references with an individual using the screen name "Fargobabe Backlund solicited "Fargobabe22" to engage in a sexual act and offered to pick her up and bring her home when they were done. Backlund arranged to meet "Fargobabe22" at a convenience store in West Fargo. The police observed Backlund at the designated convenience store. He was arrested in West Fargo and admitted he was the person who had been communicating with "Fargobabe The trial court rejected Backlund's pretrial jurisdictional and constitutional challenges to the prosecution, and he entered a conditional guilty plea under N.
Backlund appealed from the resulting conviction. Users disseminate and maintain dialogues about a wide range of information, in the form of text, images, sound, and video through cyberspace. The content of the disseminated information is wide-ranging and includes academic essays, art, music, humor, literature, medical information, and sexually explicit material.
The Internet connects millions of residents from over countries through individual computers as well as massive networks. Chat rooms, online discussion groups, newsgroups, and the World Wide Web are just some of the Internet methods by which information is exchanged. Users are frequently anonymous, which allows for free exchange of information and ideas. Messages are sent to an electronic address, rather than a geographic address and users frequently have no idea in what country or state a message originates or terminates.
Similarly, it is not always technologically possible for a user to determine the age of a user who is accessing the communications. Laws ch. The adult knows the character and content of a communication that, in whole or in part, implicitly or explicitly discusses or depicts actual or simulated nudity, sexual acts, sexual contact, sadomasochistic abuse, or other sexual performances and uses any computer communication system that allows the input, output, examination, or transfer of computer data or computer programs from one computer to another to initiate or engage in such communication with a person the adult believes to be a minor; and 2.
