(Download) "North Carolina v. Anderson" by Court of Appeals of North Carolina No. 8625SC792 # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: North Carolina v. Anderson
- Author : Court of Appeals of North Carolina No. 8625SC792
- Release Date : January 07, 1987
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 59 KB
Description
At trial defendant presented two expert witnesses, Dr. Charles Winick and Dr. Joseph Scott, to assist the jury in determining ""contemporary community standards"" relating to publications containing the depiction or description of sexual matters. The trial court excluded from evidence the results of a public opinion poll conducted by Dr. Winick on the issue of community standards. The trial court also refused to allow Dr. Scott to give his opinion about ""whether or not [the] four magazines exceeded the community level of tolerance"" and whether the magazines ""depicted or described sex in a patently offensive way, a way not tolerated by the average adult in the community."" Defendant contends that these rulings constitute an abuse of discretion and reversible error. We conclude that the trial court's treatment of Dr. Winick's testimony was appropriate; however, we agree with defendant that the exclusion of Dr. Scott's expert testimony was reversible error and requires a new trial. In Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 37 L. Ed. 2d 419, 93 S. Ct. 2607 (1973) the Supreme Court held that obscenity is to be determined by applying ""contemporary community standards."" Id. at 37, 37 L. Ed. 2d at 438, 93 S. Ct. at 2622. As explained by the court, the basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: