Opinion ID: 2017210
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Comparable Material

Text: In determining contemporary community standards, I submit it was error for the trial court to exclude from evidence other books currently acceptable to the reading public. [2] Although the trial court must necessarily have broad discretion in limiting the kind and volume of evidence which may properly be received for purposes of comparison, I think it improper to exclude from evidence all such evidence. Certainly it is germane that the approach and format of the material alleged to be offensive are similar to those which have been approved by the court in books such as Fanny Hill, which the court here refused to receive. Counsel should be permitted to argue that the books challenged in a particular case do not exceed in candor other material expressly approved by judicial decision or openly sold in ordinary bookstores, from which it may be inferred they do not affront community standards. This was the conclusion reached by the Maryland Court of Appeals in Yudkin v. State, 229 Md. 223, 182 A.2d 798, where books comparable to Tropic of Cancer, offered for comparison by the jury, were held to have been erroneously excluded. More recently, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has held in Commonwealth v. Dell Publications, Inc., 427 Pa. 189, 202, 233 A.2d 840, 847: There are two yardsticks by which contemporary community standards may be judged. One is to compare the challenged book to other books which have either been held entitled to the protection of the First Amendment or, in the absence of litigation which meet contemporary standards and are substantially similar to the challenged book. The other is to consider the reception the book received from the community when it was released. I do not suggest that a defendant has a right to deluge the court with other material claimed to have community approval or sanctioned by judicial decision. However, within manageable limits, it is incumbent upon the factfinder to assess community standards by reference to what is patently acceptable. To that end, the defendant should not have been arbitrarily precluded from offering in evidence material which he claimed was comparable, and I believe that it was error to deny him that opportunity.