Schaffer and Kilbride File Reply Brief in Landmark Obscenity and CAN- SPAM case

The Appellants representing the first convictions in the Ninth Circuit for Internet Obscenity not involving child pornography and the first convictions ever under the Federal CAN-SPAM Act filed their joint reply brief today in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The brief answers the Governments voluminous 81 page opposition brief filed last December.

In November, 2007, after hiring The Kaufman Law Group and Piccionelli & Sarno, both Schaffer and Kilbride were granted bail pending appeal.

Mr. Schaffer’s attorney, Gary Jay Kaufman of The Kaufman Law Group is confident in the outcome:  “The Government’s opposition actually helped us; they had no comeback for the fact that never, in the 35-year history of the Miller test, has a jury been instructed to consider both their own community standards and lay witness opinion testimony from outside their community.  They had no comeback because that case simply does not exist.  We are confident that the Ninth Circuit will overturn these erroneous convictions.”   

Mr. Kilbride’s attorney, Greg Piccionelli of Piccionelli & Sarno, had this to say: “This case provides a great example of the difficulty in adapting old law to new facts.  The district court tried its best, but in the end crafted an absolutely unconstitutional jury instruction.”      

Colin Hardacre, also of The Kaufman Law Group, had this to say:  “I am confident the Ninth Circuit will reverse these convictions.  The prosecution was allowed to put lay witnesses from other communities on the stand to testify as to how “offended” they were by the images they allegedly received from our clients.  This testimony was absolutely prejudicial and completely irrelevant.”   

Read the full article from Xbiz.com here.  View the Joint Reply Brief here.