Opinion ID: 109865
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Instruction as to Pandering

Text: Pandering is the business of purveying textual or graphic matter openly advertised to appeal to the erotic interest of their customers. Ginzburg v. United States, supra, at 467, citing Roth v. United States, 354 U. S., at 495-496 (Warren, C. J., concurring). We have held, and reaffirmed, that to aid a jury in its determination of whether materials are obscene, the methods of their creation, promotion, or dissemination are relevant. Splawn v. California, 431 U. S. 595, 598 (1977); Hamling v. United States, 418 U. S., at 130. In essence, the Court has considered motivation relevant to the ultimate evaluation if the prosecution offers evidence of motivation. In this case the trial judge gave a pandering instruction to which the jury could advert if it found this to be a close case under the three part Roth-Memoirs test. This was not a so-called finding instruction which removed the jury's discretion; rather it permitted the jury to consider the touting descriptions along with the materials themselves to determine whether they were intended to appeal to the recipient's prurient interest in sex, whether they were commercial exploitation of erotica solely for the sake of their prurient appeal, Ginzburg, supra, at 466, if indeed the evidence admitted of any other purpose. And while it is true the Government offered no extensive evidence of the methods of production, editorial goals, if any, methods of operation, or means of delivery other than the mailings and the names, locations, and occupations of the recipients, the evidence was sufficient to trigger the Ginzburg pandering instruction.