TENNESSEE OBSCENITY CONVICTIONS TOSSED

An adult business owner's conviction for violating Tennessee's obscenity law has been thrown out by a state appeals court.

The court ruled prosecutors failed to prove Jerry Pendergrass "knowingly" violated the law when he allegedly sold the video Half and Half to an undercover police officer at Broad Street Video store.

Pendergrass's legal team argued that he could be convicted of obscenity only if he was aware that Half and Half was obscene. The prosecution had argued that, while he may not have had actual knowledge, he had "constructive knowledge" that it violated obscenity law.

Tennessee law defines constructive knowledge as knowledge of facts which would cause "a reasonable and prudent man" to suspect the nature of the material.

But the appeals court ruled a week ago that Pendergrass could have been convicted "only if there is sufficient proof of actual knowledge of the proscribed conduct," according to Free Speech X-Press, a weekly review of censorship issues involving the adult industry published by the Free Speech Coalition. The review says the court noted that Pendergrass's actual degree of involvement with Broad Street Video was never established by the prosecution.