10-30-2007, 12:46 PM
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So Fucking Gay
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 19,714
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quentin
You can dispute the expertise and knowledge of Louis Sirkin, Jeffrey Douglas, etc., if you wish - but my sense is that most attorneys would tell you these guys are pretty damn good at what they do.... with respect to Sirkin, in particular, I think it would near impossible to find a lawyer who thinks he is anything less than a brilliant attorney.
Obscenity statutes do generally contain specific provisions that mere availability isn't sufficient to demonstrate a community standard; it is my understanding that more than one item of evidence disallowed here went well beyond mere "availability" in the community.
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I'm not saying that Sirkin or Douglas aren't knowledgeable or good at what they do. Free Speech is their business, and I don't doubt they know it inside and out. I just think Douglas might have flubbed the dub on the availability issue. 
Personally, as a juror, I would never even get to the point I would need to worry about it. I'd ask myself one simple question "Do most of the people that live in my community believe in Free Speech, and do most of them not want the government in their bedrooms." That, to me, is the community standard.
I think in most every town in the country, the answer to that question is yes. In fact, the juror interviewed by Xbiz even said as much.
I wonder what the government's take on all of this is. Are they pleased that they were able to get a conviction, or disheartened that 2 counts were dismissed?
I certainly know how they'll spin it, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the DOJ when they have meetings about future obscenity indictments.
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