Opinion ID: 2171926
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Indictment Issue

Text: [1] In order to be guilty of distributing obscene material under RSA 650:2 (Supp. 1976), a defendant need not have had knowledge that the material was obscene, but must be shown to have had knowledge of the nature of the contents thereof. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87 (1974). The defendant contends that the information defectively alleges the knowledge element of the offense because it does not specify how or when the defendant received knowledge of the contents of the July 1976 issue of Penthouse, or which agent of the corporation possessed the requisite knowledge. This, the defendant claims, is a violation of part I, article 15 of the New Hampshire Constitution, which provides: No subject shall be held to answer for any crime, or offense, until the same is fully and plainly, substantially and formally, described to him. . . . [2-5] An indictment or information must inform the defendant of the offense for which he is charged with sufficient specificity so that he knows what he must be prepared to meet and so that he is protected from being twice put in jeopardy. State v. Bean, 117 N.H. 185, 188, 371 A.2d 1152, 1154 (1977); State v. Inselburg, 114 N.H. 824, 827, 330 A.2d 457, 459 (1974). An indictment or information will generally give sufficient notice to the defendant of a statutory offense when the charge follows the language of the statute and alleges all the necessary elements of the offense with sufficient specificity. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117-18 (1974); State v. Bean supra ; State v. Inselburg, supra; 2 F. Wharton, Criminal Procedure § 289 (12th ed. 1975). Every fact the State intends to prove, however, does not have to be pleaded in the information. The test is not whether the information could be more comprehensive and certain. To the contrary, the information need contain only the elements of the offense and enough facts to warn the accused of the specific charges against him. The information in this case sufficiently apprised the defendant that he was being charged with having knowledge of the contents of a certain magazine. It was not necessary for the State to allege how or when the defendant acquired this knowledge. [6] It was also not necessary for the information to state which agent of the corporate defendant possessed knowledge of the magazine's contents. An information charging a corporation with an offense need not indicate for whose acts the corporation is being charged. See United States v. Van Allen, 28 F.R.D. 329 (1961 S.D.N.Y.); United States v. Detroit Sheet Metal & Roofing C. Ass'n, 116 F. Supp. 81 (E.D. Mich. 1953); State v. Oregon City Elks Lodge No. 1189, BPO Elks, 17 Ore. App. 124, 520 P.2d 900 (1974). [7] The defendant's second challenge to the sufficiency of the information concerns the use of the phrase obscene material. The defendant would have the State allege exactly why the magazine is obscene. It contends that the information should allege facts from which the obscenity of the magazine in issue could be found. This argument was considered by the United States Supreme Court in Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87 (1974). In Hamling the defendants were charged, inter alia, with mailing obscene material in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1461. The Court recognized that the definition of obscenity is not a question of fact, but one of law. The word obscene is not merely a descriptive term, but a legal term of art. The legal definition of obscenity does not change with each indictment; it is a term sufficiently definite in legal meaning to give a defendant notice of the charge against him. Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. at 118; see Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957). Because obscenity is sufficiently definite in legal meaning to give a defendant notice of the charge against him, no facts have to be alleged in the indictment or information that would support a finding of obscenity. We therefore hold that the information in this case is sufficient to inform the defendant of the charge against it.