Opinion ID: 1791789
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Present statutory scheme.

Text: The provision under which Appellant was convicted, KRS 531.320(1), states: A person is guilty of promoting a sexual performance by a minor when, knowing the character and content thereof, he produces, directs or promotes any performance which includes sexual conduct by a minor. (Emphasis added.) KRS 531.300(7) defines promote: Promote means to prepare, publish, print, procure or manufacture, or to offer or agree to do the same. KRS 531.300(5) defines performance: Performance means any play, motion picture, photograph, or dance. Performance also means any other visual representation exhibited before an audience. (Emphasis added.) [1] Thus, if A.B.'s act of posing nude for the photograph taken by Appellant constituted sexual conduct by a minor, Appellant was properly convicted of violating KRS 531.320(1). KRS 531.300(4) defines sexual conduct by a minor: Sexual conduct by a minor means: (a) Acts of masturbation, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, sexual intercourse, or deviant sexual intercourse, actual or simulated; (b) Physical contact with, or willful or intentional exhibition of the genitals; (c) Flagellation or excretion for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification; or (d) The exposure, in an obscene manner, of the unclothed or apparently unclothed human male or female genitals, pubic area or buttocks, or the female breast, whether or not subsequently obscured by a mark placed thereon, or otherwise altered, in any resulting motion picture, photograph or other visual representation, exclusive of exposure portrayed in matter of a private, family nature not intended for distribution outside the family. (Emphasis added.) Obviously subsections (4)(a) and (4)(c) have no application here. Subsection 4(d) specifically includes a photograph as an exposure; and because a photograph is also a performance, the photograph Appellant took of A.B. could constitute promoting a sexual performance that includes sexual conduct by a minor as defined under subsection (4)(b). KRS 531.300(3) defines obscene: Obscene means the predominate appeal of the matter taken as a whole is to a prurient interest in sexual conduct involving minors. [2]