Dorothy Nell Hunt v. State of Oklahoma

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge.

Dorothy Nell Hunt was convicted in state court of violating an Oklahoma obscenity statute that prohibits the unlawful sale of a movie showing acts of sexual intercourse or unnatural copulation, 21 Okla.Stat. § 1040.-51 (1968). 1 On a petition for writ of habeas corpus, the federal district court concluded the obscenity statute had been unconstitutionally applied to Hunt because the state court judge failed to instruct the jury on scienter, an element of the crime. The federal judge granted a writ of habeas corpus. The State of Oklahoma appeals, claiming that the jury…