Should Mike Davis, the 10TV weatherman, face only state charges for sending and receiving "significant" amount of child pornography?

I had no idea during our discussion on Wednesday of federal sentencing ranges for child pornography offenses that there would be a high-profile arrest in our own neighborhood on state charges involving this behavior just the next day.  This local article, headlined "Ohio TV station's chief meteorologist charged with child pornography," provides these details (with some highlighted in bold):

A meteorologist for an Ohio television station has been arrested and charged with pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.  Mike Davis, chief meteorologist for WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, was booked into the Franklin County Jail on Thursday for the second-degree felony.

The alleged offense occurred on Aug. 5, 2019, according to Franklin County Municipal Court Records.  The records allege that Davis knowingly advertised for sale or dissemination an image of a young girl participating or engaging in sexual activity, according to WCMH-TV.

Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin said in a news conference that two weeks ago, the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force received a tip that Davis had allegedly sent and received a “significant” amount of child pornography, the station reported. “This establishes a pattern of behavior.  One week ago that information was confirmed and more evidence was gathered,” Baldwin said.

ICAC executed search warrants Thursday morning at multiple locations that included Davis’ home and the WBNS-TV studios, WCMH-TV reported. ICAC detectives arrested Davis at his home Thursday morning.

“These are kids that are clearly being exploited for sexual appetite,” Chief Deputy Rick Minerd said.

“There’s no question that it was him versus someone else living in that home?” a WCMH-TV reported asked Minerd. “Yes,” Minerd said.

The Ohio Revised Code provision, § 2907.322 Pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor or impaired person, which serves as the basis for the charge against Davis, sets forth a second-degree felony which means the the sentencing range under Ohio law is "an indefinite prison term with a stated minimum term selected by the court of two, three, four, five, six, seven, or eight years and a maximum term [that is "plus fifty per cent of that term"].  In other words, if convicted under Ohio law for only this single charge, Davis could get as low as 2-3 years in state prison or as high as 8-12 years in state prison.  If he were subject to multiple charges, which certainly seems possible given the report of a “significant” amount of child pornography, the sentencing possibilities could expand.

And, as we discussed in class, there are complicated federal criminal statutes, particularly 18 U.S.C. § 2252 and 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, under which Davis might be charged in federal court for this conduct. (And the Supreme Court confirmed this past Term that a defendant can be charge in two distinct jurisdictions based on the same criminal conduct.)  This chapter of a lengthy US Sentencing Commission report on child porn offense provides (just some of) the statutory ranges for this conduct under federal law:

Upon conviction of any [child porn] production offenses, an offender faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years of imprisonment and a maximum of 30 years...  Advertising child pornography carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years of imprisonment....

The offenses of receipt (or solicitation), transportation (including mailing or shipping), distribution, and possession with the intent to distribute or sell child pornography each carry a mandatory minimum term of five years of imprisonment and a maximum term of 20 years...

The current statutory range of imprisonment for possession is zero to ten years of imprisonment if an offender possessed child pornography depicting a minor 12 years of age or older who was not then prepubescent and zero to 20 years of imprisonment if an offender possessed child pornography depicting a prepubescent minor or a minor under 12 years of age.

I am not concerned that you know all of these particulars, but I am eager for you to see (a) how complicated this can get, and (b) how consequential the decision to charge in state versus federal court can sometimes prove to be.  Last but not least, I am already eager to hear any early musings about an appropriate sentence for Mike Davis.