People v. Daly

2 Guam 155
CourtDistrict Court, D. Guam
DecidedNovember 21, 1979
DocketCriminal No. 78-00057A
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Guam 155 (People v. Daly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Guam primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Daly, 2 Guam 155 (gud 1979).

Opinion

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Appellant was charged with the misdemeanor offense of presenting an obscene performance by parting her vulva with her hands while lying down on stage in violation of §28.50 of the Guam Criminal and Correctional Code [9 GCA]. Section 28.50 of the Code provides in relevant part:

A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if he knowingly or recklessly:
(h) performs an obscene act or otherwise presents obscene exhibition of his body in a public place.

The following facts were adduced at trial:

On or about February 10, 1978, at approximately 1:05 p.m., a Mr. Duran of the Department of Public Safety Vice Division had gone with an Officer Sabían to the Sandy You Club in Tamuning. After entering the club, Duran and Sabían sat at a table which was located approximately ten to fifteen feet in [157]*157front of a large, well-lit stage. Appellant was dancing nude on the stage. In response to the government's questioning, Duran testified that he observed the following:

Q. What did you observe Miss Daly do on the stage?
A. She was dancing nude, and she exposed herself.
Q. In what way?
A. Well, she was laying on the stage on her side, and she lifted one of her legs way up in the air, and with hands, she parted her labia, exposing the inner section.
Q. Did she do anything else?
A. She was gyrating her pelvis in and out.
Reporter's Transcript, pp.6-7.

Duran attempted to photograph appellant's performance. He was prevented from doing so by one of the club's waitresses, who informed him that taking pictures in the club was not permitted. Duran then placed appellant under arrest.

In this appeal, appellant contends: (1) that Guam Criminal and Correctional Code §28.45 and §28.50 are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and the prosecution of the appellant thereunder violated her constitutional right to due process of law; and (2) the evidence presented against appellant was insufficient to sustain a conviction because the government failed to produce any evidence of the community standards of Guam; and (3) the evidence presented was insufficient to sustain a conviction because the jury was deprived of the opportunity to consider appellant's performance as a whole in reaching its determination as to whether or not she violated Guam's obscenity law.

Upon review of appellant's contentions, we find no basis for reversal, and accordingly AFFIRM the judgment of the trial court.

I

We note first that obscenity can manifest itself in conduct as well as through means of verbal and pictorial expression, Kaplan v. California, 93 S. Ct. 2680, 2683-2684 (1973), and that States have greater power to regulate nonverbal, physical conduct than to suppress depictions or descriptions of the same behavior. Miller v. California, 93 S. Ct. 2607, 2616 n. 8 (1973), see also United States v. O'Brien, 88 S. Ct. 1673, 1679 (1968). We also recognize that the search for guidance in separating unprotected obscenity from other sexually oriented but constitutionally protected forms of expression has historically been one of the more difficult tasks of reviewing courts.1 In Miller v. California, supra, the Supreme Court enunciated a [158]*158comprehensive definition of obscenity, and provided new criteria applicable to suppression of the obscene.

The constitutional standards provided in Miller and its attendant cases are those which are applicable to the issues raised in this appeal, and it is on this basis that we proceed in our review of appellant's contentions.

II

Appellant first makes a broad attack on Guam Criminal and Correctional Code §28.45 and §28.50, alleging that they are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.

Section 28.45 of the Guam Criminal and Correctional Code states:
a. Any material or performance is obscene if considered as a whole, applying contemporary community standards:
1. its predominant appeal is to prurient interest;
2. it goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in the description or representation of nudity, sex or excrétion; and
3. it is utterly without redeeming social importance.
b. In a prosection under this article, the question whether the predominant appeal of material or of a performance is to prurient interest shall be determined with reference to average adults, unless it appears from the nature of the material or performance, or from the circumstances of its dissemination, distribution, or exhibition, that it is designed for a clearly defined deviant sexual group or for children, in which case the question of predominant appeal shall be determined with reference to the intended recipient group.
c. When circumstances of production, sale, dissemination, distribution, or publicity indicate that material or a performance is being exploited by the defendant for the sake of its prurient appeal, evidence of such circumstances is admissible in a prosecution under this article upon the upon question whether the material or performance is utterly without redeeming social importance.
d. Neither the prosecution nor the defense shall be required to introduce expert witness testimony concerning the obscene character of the material [159]*159or performance which is the subject of a prosecution under this article.
Section 28.50 of the Guam Criminal and Correction Code states:
A person is guilty of misdemeanor if he knowingly or recklessly:
a.sends or brings any obscene material into this territory for sale or distribution;
b. prepares, published, prints, exhibits, distributes, or offers to distribute any obscene material;
c. possesses any obscene material with intent to distribute it is violation of this article;
d. sells advertises or disseminates material, whether or not obscene, by advertising, representing or suggesting that is is obscene;
e. presents or directs an obscene performance or participates in that portion thereof which makes it obscene; or
f. distributes or sends to, or exhibits or offers to distribute any obscene material to a minor under the age of eighteen years;
g. employs or uses a minor under the age of eighteen years to do or assist in doing any of the acts described in this section; or
h. performs an obscene act or otherwise presents an obscene exhibition of his body in public place.
In Miller, the Court stated that:
. . . we now confine the permissible scope of . . . regulation to works which depict or describe sexual conduct. That conduct must be specifically defined by the applicable state law, as written or authoritatively construed (footnote omitted).

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Bluebook (online)
2 Guam 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-daly-gud-1979.