The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant in a case on January 7 this year.

The case was over a man who had secretly hidden a video camera and filmed a 13-year-old girl naked in her bedroom.

David Hall, who was 50 at the time of the incident in 2010 had lived with a relative and her two daughters for a brief period of time while he was helping the family repair their home that was damaged by a flood.

One morning while the 13-year-old girl was in the shower, David Hall hid a camera on top of the girl’s dresser under some clothes and left the room in order to capture her on camera naked when she got out of the shower.

When the girl returned to her room after getting dressed, she noticed the red light on the camera, grabbed it, and took it to her mother.

The court made up of five judges was split, with only the three women judges voting that he was not guilty of attempting to produce child pornography claiming that according to Tennessee’s definition of child pornography, “sexual content beyond mere nudity” needed to occur.

According to Associated Press,

“The evidence presented at trial shows at most that the defendant intended to produce material that would include images of the minor victim engaged in everyday activities ordinarily performed in the nude,” she[Justice Holly Kirby] wrote. She was joined in her opinion by Justices Cornelia Clark and Sharon Lee.

Justice Roger Page disagreed. In his dissent, Page wrote that while it is impossible to know what the video would have shown had the camera not been found, the most important factor was Hall’s intent in trying to make the recording.

The judges who did dissent said that the most important element for their consideration was the intent behind David Hall’s actions, and I agree.

The state of Tennessee now has 90 days to file an appeal which is likely to happen.