People v. Morrison

The defendants, Richard Pope and Charles Morrison, attendants at adult bookstores, were each separately charged and found guilty by a jury of the crime of obscenity on three counts. Each count alleged the sale of an obscene magazine. Both defendants filed timely post-trial motions, renewing a constitutional issue asserted in their pretrial motions to dismiss, which had previously been denied. That issue centered on the defendants’ claim that the Illinois obscenity statute in existence at the time they were charged and tried was unconstitutional in failing to require that the value element of…