Davis v. State

1996 OK CR 15, 916 P.2d 251, 1996 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 18, 1996 WL 169890
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 12, 1996
DocketF-94-1232
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1996 OK CR 15 (Davis v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. State, 1996 OK CR 15, 916 P.2d 251, 1996 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 18, 1996 WL 169890 (Okla. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

LANE, Judge:

Appellant, Anthony Aloysius Davis, was convicted by jury trial in the District Court of Oklahoma County in Case No. CF-93-4859 before the Honorable Richard W. Freeman, District Judge. Appellant was found guilty on five counts resulting primarily from his operation of a computerized bulletin board system 1 where he trafficked in obscene pictures. He was convicted of the following:

Counts I and II: Distribution of Obscene Pictures in violation of 21 O.S.1991, § 1021(A)(3);
Count III: Possession of Obscene Material in violation of 21 O.S.1991, § 1024.2;
Count IV: Trafficking in Obscene Pictures in violation of 21 O.S.1991, § 1040.51; and,
Count V: Using a Computer to Violate Oklahoma Statutes in violation of 21 O.S.1991, § 1958.

The jury fixed punishment at five years imprisonment and a fine of $1,000.00 on each of the first three counts. In addition, the jury set punishment at five years imprisonment and a $25,000.00 fine for Count IV and five years imprisonment and a $5,000.00 fine for Count V. The jury recommended concurrent sentencing, but the trial court ordered the sentences to run consecutively and suspended the sentences in Counts III, IV and V. The trial court also ordered the Appellant to perform 500 hours of community service. Appellant has perfected his appeal and raises seven propositions of error in his brief-in-chief.

The present ease involves novel issues for the Court with regard to the application of Oklahoma’s obscenity statutes to the use of computer technology. We find that obscene material stored in electronic media and systems operators, or “sysops,” of commercial computer bulletin board systems can be subject to the obscenity statutes. We affirm the judgment and sentence.

SUMMARY OF FACTS

In April of 1993, Lieutenant Tony Gregory of the Oklahoma City Police Department received a telephone call from an anonymous source that “obscene CDs” were being sold by an individual from a business called “Tele-co,” located at 1501 Southeast 66th Street in Oklahoma City. Sergeant Tony Gracey was assigned to investigate the caller’s tip. Gra- *255 cey spoke to the Appellant in the Teleeo business office in late May, 1993. When Graeey asked if the Appellant had any interactive CD-ROMs, the Appellant replied that he did not, but that he could get some “adult” CD-ROMs.

Graeey returned to the Appellant’s business on June 4, 1993. After the Appellant’s secretary ushered Graeey into Appellant’s office, Graeey said, “I’m here to talk to you about the adult CD-ROMs.” Appellant closed his office door and produced a stack of eight CD-ROM discs. To Gracey’s question, “Are these hard core?” Appellant replied, “They don’t get any harder core than this.” Appellant told Graeey the discs were illegal in Oklahoma, but were legal in Texas, and the local district attorney “was trying to clean up the county” and was “real bad on pornography.” Graeey purchased one of the eight CD-ROM discs which was entitled “Triple X Extreme.” Graeey paid $99.90 in cash for the disc. The disc held a number of subdirectories with names of sexual or erotic themes. At trial, Graeey entered “Triple X Extreme” into a computer’s disc drive. He displayed images from the disc’s files to the jury and proceeded to read the subtitles of a narrated story line accompanying moving images of various sexual acts portrayed by human actors.

The Appellant received a telephone call from Graeey on July 2, 1993. Graeey told Appellant he wanted another CD-ROM disc and Appellant replied he had plenty which were available. When Graeey arrived at Te-leco, Appellant again presented Graeey with a stack of seven or eight discs. Graeey asked which disc was the best, and Appellant replied, “they [were] pretty much all the same.” Graeey purchased a disc entitled “Volcano Hot Pics” for $100.00 in cash. Gra-cey returned this disc to the Appellant on July 12th and told the Appellant he did not like what it had on it, because it was not as hard core as he expected. Graeey asked for another disc in exchange for “Volcano Hot Pics.” Appellant became upset with Graeey and stated that because the cartridge had already been opened Appellant would not take it back. Appellant was reminded by Graeey that the cartridge had already been opened when he purchased it. Appellant presented Graeey with a stack of CD-ROM discs and said, “Well, pick one and that’s it this time.” Graeey exchanged “Volcano Hot Pics” for a disc entitled “Ecstasy Hot Pics.” At trial, the prosecution showed images from certain software files stored on the “Ecstasy Hot Pics” disc at trial. The obscenity evidence from this CD-ROM disc took the form of still pictures, or a slide show of images, rather than an animated projection on the computer monitor. These pictures were reproduced from a video capture board and scanner which translated pictures on film into digitized binary data capable of being held on disc.

On July 19, 1993, District Judge Virgil Black viewed the images accessed from the data held on the discs Sergeant Graeey purchased from Appellant. After determining that “Triple X Extreme” and “Ecstasy Hot Pics” contained obscene material under 21 O.S.1991, § 1024.2, Judge Black issued a search warrant and Oklahoma City police officers executed the warrant the following day. After the police arrived at Teleeo on July 20th, the Appellant cooperated in allowing them to obtain evidence. He voluntarily showed them twenty-five “adult” compact discs in a box. The Appellant told the police that he had more “adult” discs in his office. The police seized six more discs situated on top of Appellant’s desk which included the discs entitled “Triple X Extreme” and “Ecstasy Hot Pics.” During the search, the police seized four more compact discs which were housed within a CD-ROM disc changer attached to a larger computer system. The police obtained a total of fifty-three compact discs of various titles. The police also seized the Appellant’s business records which included mail order invoice forms showing that he had distributed “adult” discs to customers as far away as Australia and Hong Kong.

The State introduced photographs of four disc cartridges for the discs held within the CD-ROM disc changer used for allowing subscribers to access the files of the discs for their own viewing. The titles of these discs had cryptic names such as “Storm II Giflited Gifs,” “BB Graphic Software, Volume I,” “FAO CD-ROM Disc, Vol. 2, Profit Publish- *256 mg,” and “FAO CD-ROM Disc, Vol. 3, Profit Publishing.” The four discs held -within these cartridges formed the basis of the trafficking charge in Count IV. The Appellant operated a computer bulletin board named Oklahoma Information Exchange. Subscribers could access the images contained on the discs played on the computer system, such as the four discs playing within the computer system’s disc changer when the police arrived. Before being transported to jail, the Appellant told the police that a person could call up his system and view what the discs were playing.

Nine telephone lines were attached to modems connected to the computer system. The modems were connected to two central processing computer units.

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Davis v. Gracey
111 F.3d 1472 (Tenth Circuit, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1996 OK CR 15, 916 P.2d 251, 1996 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 18, 1996 WL 169890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-state-oklacrimapp-1996.