Court Opinion

ID: 9568323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:02:34.08837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:36.943933
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
concurring specially.
1. In his dissenting opinion in the case of Good v. State, 127 Ga. App. 775, 781 (195 SE2d 264), Judge Pannell poses the question: "Does this mean there can be no conviction in the absence of such viewing by the jury, and that destruction of the obscene matter by the accused would prevent all prosecutions, even though the accused admits the exhibition of the matter described by the witnesses? As I construe it, that seems to be what the majority are holding and if they do so hold, they may be unwittingly granting a haven and refuge to the purveyors of filth. With this I cannot agree.” Presiding Judge Hall, now Justice Hall, in the majority opinion of that case answers: "We cannot conceive of how a jury could apply the Roth test to a film without having seen it, i.e., make *676a sophisticated value judgment on the libidinous effect of a visual experience without having had the experience.”
I concur in the judgment only because I do not find anything in the record indicating that the jury actually viewed the film, and we are therefore bound under Good, supra, to reverse.
2. In 1024 Peachtree Corporation, d/b/a Metro Theatre v. Slaton, 228 Ga. 102 (184 SE2d 144) the Supreme Court holds in a civil adversarial hearing that there was no merit in the enumeration of error to the effect that the show cause order requiring appellant to produce film for viewing amounted to self-incrimination, further stating, "We agree with the trial judge that a jury should now decide whether this film is obscene.” (Emphasis supplied.)
The court was not per se requiring appellant to produce the film in the normal sense; the court already had custody and possession of the film inasmuch as defendant was holding the film under injunction and court order. I would reverse only for the reasons outlined in Division 1.