Court Opinion

ID: 9657101
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:14:10.238533+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:40.845159
License: Public Domain

Rogosheske, Justice
(dissenting).
While, in obedience to decisions of the United States Supreme Court I am persuaded to join the dissent of my brother Otis, I feel compelled to express the primary basis for my dismay concerning the disposition of this appeal. I find it impossible to accept the proposition that an appellate court can sustain a conviction in a criminal case upon a determination of an issue that was not litigated.
It was never claimed that defendants were pandering obscene materials. As the dissent points out, no attempt whatsoever to prove such conduct was undertaken or urged as a basis for conviction at any stage of this proceeding, if indeed the necessity therefor ever occurred to the prosecution. What this amounts to in my opinion is to declare that the prosecution unwittingly proved a criminal offense without notice to defendants of an essential element of the offense engrafted upon our statute by Redrup and, if such notice is not arguably required, without affording defendants an opportunity to litigate the issue. It seems obvious to me that such procedure is wholly inconsistent with due process and cannot be approved in any criminal case.