Court Opinion

ID: 9850711
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:01:52.737566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:42.209615
License: Public Domain

Sears, Justice,
concurring.
I fully concur with the majority’s partial affirmance and partial reversal of the convictions in this case. I write separately, however, to encourage the legislature to remove the scienter requirement from OCGA § 16-12-100 (b) (1) altogether. As is the case with statutory rape, I believe that one should be held strictly liable for sexually exploiting a minor by depicting the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Put another way, I believe that before loading film in the camera, one who would photograph or videotape another individual having sexual relations must be certain beyond any and all doubt that the individual being depicted is an adult. Barring such certainty, one should either refrain from taking the photographs, or else be prepared to pay dire consequences. While I do not question the constitutional associative and expressive rights of consenting adults, when the safety and well-being of children is at stake, as was *284the case here, I cannot fathom how we can demand anything other than strict accountability on the part of the exploiting adult.
I also note that this case illustrates a hard and humbling lesson — that there are intrinsic limits on the law’s ability to impart virtue, and to form and forge character. In our society today, too much time and energy is being spent indulging obsessive self-preoccupations, to the exclusion of, interest and involvement in, or concern about other people. Not enough time or effort is being devoted to the cultivation of our people as moral human beings. (This is especially true with regard to our young people, who are our future.) As a society, we must stop tolerating the type of malignant self-gratification that Phagan displayed in this case, and demand in its place responsibility, civility, and integrity.