Wenzler v. Pitchess

¶4DUNIWAY, Circuit Judge:

¶5Wenzler was convicted of violating the California obscenity law, Penal Code, § 311.2.1 He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a fine of $500.00. He appealed, unsuccessfully, and also sought writs of habeas corpus from the California courts, again unsuccessfully. Having exhausted his state remedies and been taken into custody, he turned to federal habeas corpus. His petition was denied, after a hearing, and he appeals.

¶6The basic facts are not disputed. Wenzler operated a moving picture theatre in Pasadena, featuring “nudie” type moving pictures. At the lobby candy counter, he sold 8 mm. moving pictures for home use. The offense was the sale of such film. Jacobellis v. State of Ohio, 1964, 378 U.S. 184, 187-188, 84 S.Ct. 1676, 12 L.Ed.2d 793, requires that the court in which a first amendment right *403to publish is asserted must itself read or view the material in question. The district judge saw the film. We have also seen it. He also read the transcript of the trial, in which Wenzler was convicted by a judge, sitting without a jury. We have also read it. The district judge concluded that the film is “hard core pornography,” and that Wenzler has not been deprived of a constitutional right.

¶7We agree. Roth v. United States, 1957, 354 U.S. 476, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1 L.Ed. 2d 1498; A Book Named “John Cleland’s Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure” v. Attorney General of Com. of Massachusetts, 1966, 86 S.Ct. 975; Mishkin v. New York, 1966, 86 S.Ct. 958; Ginzburg v. United States, 1966, 86 S.Ct. 942; cf. Zeitlin v. Arnebergh, 1963, 59 Cal.2d 901, 31 Cal.Rptr. 800, 383 P.2d 152. If, as we hold, what Wenzler sold was hard core pornography, the mere fact (if it be a fact) that others whose product does not fall within that category might have been convicted under the California statute as it was construed at the time of his conviction does not entitle Wenzler to relief in this collateral attack upon his conviction.

¶8Affirmed.