Opinion ID: 444129
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: deviant groups

Text: 26 Counts 7 through 12 all alleged that Petrov mailed obscene materials. In counts 8, 10, 11, and 12 the allegedly obscene materials were photographs depicting bondage, torture, and body mutilation. Counts 7 and 9 involved photographs depicting sexual activity between either men or women and various animals. Petrov contends that the photographs in all six of these counts are so disgusting as to be incapable of appealing to the prurient interest of the average person under the contemporary community standards test for obscenity, and that the government failed to present the expert testimony necessary to establish that the photographs would appeal to the prurient interest of a clearly defined deviant group. The government contends that expert testimony was unnecessary on counts 7 and 9, and that it was supplied on counts 8, 10, 11, and 12 through cross-examination of defendant's expert witnesses. 27 In the typical obscenity case, one of the essential elements to be established is that to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest. Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 489, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1311, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957); see also Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 2615, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973). However, material appealing to atypical sexual proclivities may be found obscene only when its dominant theme appeals to the prurient interest of members of a clearly defined deviant sexual group. Mishkin v. New York, 383 U.S. 502, 508, 86 S.Ct. 958, 963, 16 L.Ed.2d 56 (1966). 28 This circuit, in United States v. Klaw, 350 F.2d 155 (2d Cir.1965), held that where the prurient interest is of a deviant segment of society, the government must not only identify the deviant group, but must also establish that the material in question appeals to that group's prurient interest. Both facts are generally established through the use of expert testimony. Id. at 166-67; see also Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 56 n. 6, 93 S.Ct. 2628, 2634, n. 6, 37 L.Ed.2d 446 (1973) (Supreme Court reserves judgment on the extreme case, where the materials are directed at such a bizarre deviant group that the experience of the trier of fact would be plainly inadequate to judge whether the material appeals to the prurient interest, citing Mishkin and Klaw). 29 As applied to the case before us, this issue pertains only to counts 7 through 12, because counts 2, 3, 5, and 6 involve photographs of nude, mostly underage, males, on which the trier of fact needs no expert advice to determine the issues of prurient appeal and offensiveness to contemporary community standards. United States v. Wild, 422 F.2d 34, 35-36 (2d Cir.1969), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 986, 91 S.Ct. 1644, 29 L.Ed.2d 152 (1971). 30
31 The material in counts 8, 10, 11, and 12, like that in Klaw, is of the bondage genre. See Wild, 422 F.2d at 35 n. 1. These photographs depict nude men and women bound with leather straps and chains, subject to various types of sexual abuse, (counts 8 and 11), as well as genital mutilation and torture (counts 10 and 12). Since such bizarre activity is not directed at the average person, nor does it appeal to the average person's prurient interest, see Klaw, 350 F.2d at 167, the government was required to establish the existence of a deviant group to whom such material appeals, and that the material at issue would appeal to such a group. Id. 32 The government contends that it presented sufficient evidence for these purposes through its cross-examination of defendant's expert, Dr. Clive M. Davis. On direct, Dr. Davis had testified that the photographs of bondage, genital mutilation, and torture, which were the subject of counts 8, 10, 11 and 12, did not appeal to the prurient interest of the average person in that the average person would be uninterested in sexually and unaroused sexually by that material. Dr. Davis acknowledged, however, that the American Scientific Association recognizes sexual sadism as a psycho-sexual dysfunction, and that the materials in evidence dealing with bondage and sadomasochistic activity would be sexually interesting and result in sexual arousal [f]or some small minority of individuals viewing that material, even though, taken as a whole, they would not have such an appeal to the average person. 33 While Dr. Davis, himself, had doubts as to whether activity between consenting adults would constitute deviance, he conceded that respectable expert opinion in the field, including the manual of the American Scientific Association, classifies bondage, torture, and mutilation activities as deviant even when consented to. We think that the evidence on these issues, developed through Dr. Davis's cross-examination, was sufficient to satisfy the requirements of Klaw, and to warrant submission of counts 8, 10, 11, and 12 to the jury. The verdicts of guilty on these counts, therefore, must be affirmed. 34
35 My colleagues have voted to affirm counts 7 and 9, whose photographs depict nude men and women engaging in various sexual acts with a variety of animals. There is no doubt about their offensiveness to contemporary community standards. But contrary to the position of Judge Lumbard, infra at 836, concurred in by Judge Newman, infra at 832, I think that these pictures are so bizarre that the jury could not have found any appeal to prurient interest simply by examining the photographs. Under Klaw, therefore, I believe that expert testimony was necessary to establish that link to obscenity. 36 On cross-examination of defendant's expert, while the government did establish the existence of a deviant sexual group which suffers from a sexual dysfunction known as zoophilia, the government did not establish that the particular pictures in evidence in counts 7 and 9 would appeal to the prurient interest of a zoophiliac. Absent such evidence, I would conclude that the proof on counts 7 and 9 was insufficient and that these counts should be dismissed. I therefore dissent from my colleagues' affirmance of these counts.