Staunton

A week ago I wrote about the Staunton, VA obscenity trial of Rick Krial. Rick Krial, and his store, were each charged with a range of misdemeanor and felony obscenity counts and were tried along with a clerk on two of the misdemeanor counts. Krial and the store were each found guilty of one; the clerk was found not guilty of both. I wrote about the more philosophical issues of what obscenity means in my last post. This post is concerned with something different. Here I want to make clear why, whether or not you ever plan to travel to Staunton, VA you need to care about this case. The reason: Unlike Las Vegas, the place Staunton's prosecutor most fears, what happens in Staunton isn't so likely to stay in Staunton. Read why below the fold.

A couple years ago we had the Alabama Vibrator case. Now we have the Staunton Pornography case. According to NewsLeader.com, Rick Krial, owner of After Hours Video, a store whose express purpose was to sell "adult" material to adults, was indicted on 16 felony charges and 8 misdemeanor charges for obscenity because in his shop he sold pornography to ... wait for it ... adults. From August 12-15 he was tried on two of the misdemeanor charges. He was convicted on one. His store was convicted of the same charge. An employee was found not guilty of the same charges. My attempt to make sense of this is below the fold.