Our DOJ on the job

[Learned Dog]

Foax,
Thought you'd want to know about a guilty plea in a recent obscenity
prosecution. The last graph of the excerpt below from a Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette article tells it all. If horrifying "images conjured
by...words" is now the standard for obscenity, imagine what other works of
fiction could potentially meet that standard.

TLD

"[Karen] Fletcher, 56, pleaded guilty to violating federal obscenity law
based on a number of stories she wrote that depicted the rape, murder and
torture of children...

Though she began writing the stories as a kind of self-imposed therapy, Ms.
Fletcher published them on a Web site where she charged members a $10 per
month subscription fee.

She had 29 members.

Nearly two years ago, the U.S. attorney's office filed six counts of
transmission of obscene matters against Ms. Fletcher.

She originally planned to fight the charges -- and had a team of First
Amendment lawyers on her side -- but as the time neared for a trial, her
fear of possibly losing and being sentenced to prison was too much for her.

She faced a recommended guideline range of 27 to 33 months in prison. As
part of her plea agreement, though, the government agreed incarceration was
not appropriate.

That's not because prosecutors didn't believe it was a serious case, said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman.
'The premise of this prosecution is that words have power,' he said. 'The
images conjured by Ms. Fletcher's words are as horrifying or more horrifying
than any photographs or videos of child pornography which can be seen on the
Internet.'"

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08221/902713-52.stm
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