TAMPA - Attorneys for Max Hardcore (a.k.a. Paul Little) filed a motion Thursday requesting that his prison sentence be postponed while they appeal his conviction on obscenity charges.
The Tampa Tribune reports that Little's attorneys plan to appeal the conviction on seven points, including the argument that federal obscenity laws violate the right to sexual privacy and are "unworkable when applied on the Internet."
The attorneys said that U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew erred when she allowed prosecutors to present excerpts of the films in question during the trial, rather than the entire films and that she erred again when she wouldn't let the defense play the entire DVDs.
The motion also argues that Bucklew formed her own conclusion about Little's guilt before the prosecution was finished presenting its case.
Attorneys said that Little is not a flight risk, pointing out that the producer/director traveled to Tampa for every required court appearance.
Little was convicted in June on ten counts of distributing obscene material through the mail and the Internet. The charges stemmed from an FBI investigation in which a separate distributor, Jaded Video, mailed European versions of five Max Hardcore videos to an undercover postal inspector. The indictment also charged Little in connection with online trailers for the movies.
Little was sentenced to 46 months in prison. His websites were confiscated by the government and he was fined a total of $87,500.
