Max Hardcore’s obscenity trial underway.
UNDERDOG - Criminal/Drunk Driving Defense in Maryland, Virginia, DC:
Bill of Rights (From public domain.)
On June 4, 2007, I blogged about Paul Little’s (a.k.a. Max Hardcore) obscenity prosecution in Tampa federal court, and said, among other things:
"The feds’ latest effort to go after the more shocking variety of adult material is its May 17, 2007, indictment of Paul F. Little, who goes by the screen name Max Hardcore. I met Max Hardcore ever so briefly at the 2001 Free Speech Coalition annual awards event, too briefly to get any added understanding of him. However, I surmise that he produces the type of material that he produces to satisfy a market demand; otherwise, one would expect he would have shifted gears after all these years."
Paul Little’s obscenity prosecution started last Monday, May 27, 2008; thanks to a fellow listserv member for alerting me of that. Little and co-defendant Max World Entertainment are defended by a lineup of fellow First Amendment Lawyers Association members, including Jeffrey Douglas and Lou Sirkin. Jeff and Lou are among FALA officers and past officers who made me feel all the more welcome when I joined the FALA over seven years ago, and for that I always wil be grateful.
With prosecutions involving alleged visual obscenity can come very explicit images for the jury to view, and Little’s jury apparently is seeing such images. Howard Bashman at How Appealing links to some of the news stories of the trial’s play-by-play. Last Thursday and Friday, the defense orally moved for a mistrial, over such judicial actions as the judge’s refusal to question a juror who sent a note asking about the possibility of viewing fewer hours of sexually explicit material, which reduced viewing would fly in the face of the Miller doctrine’s requirement that, inter alia, the jury…