A federal prosecutor revealed that there are currently 17 federal grand juries considering obscenity indictments across the country, and 50 more cases are being considered.
Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the 10-count indictment against Extreme Associates, Rob Zicari, and Janet Romano on obscenity charges, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that after a decade of lax enforcement it was time for the Justice Department to crack down on obscenity violation.
The case against Extreme Associates is based on the sale of five videotapes and Internet video clips that graphically depicted rape and murder within an adult video.
Buchanan offered the current federal obscenity prosecution statistics as proof that the government was taking action against adult entertainment.
"More material has become available and more people are pushing the envelope, offering more offensive, degrading and violent material," she said.
Buchanan also said that in 2003 there were 83 obscenity convictions nationwide. It is not clear if Buchanan is talking about only federal convictions, or if she is including state and local obscenity convictions as well.
According to First Amendment lawyer Lawrence G. Walters, the majority of defendants indicted for obscenity over the last year have taken plea agreements.
Prosecutors have been choosing cities known for their conservative values as places to enforce obscenity laws. Pittsburgh, where Buchanan is prosecuting the Extreme case, has a reputation as bastion of conservatism. By having the videos in question sent to Pittsburgh via the United States Postal Service, Buchanan was able to claim jurisdiction for the case.
"We believe the crimes were committed in other jurisdictions as well," Buchanan told the Tribune-Review. "But we investigated it here and decided to prosecute it here."
Buchanan argues that while Pittsburgh is probably a better venue to prosecute the Zicari case than California, where Zicari had previously evaded obscenity charges, Alabama could be considered an even better place.
Jennifer Kinsley, an attorney who is part of Zicari’s defense team, argued that even conservative cities aren’t guaranteed to convict in obscenity cases, pointing to Cincinnati as an example of a conservative city where obscenity cases have been successfully defended.
