MICHAEL J. AUSTIN, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Michael Austin appeals his conviction for violating Florida's obscenity statute by showing obscene material to a minor. The court affirmed both his conviction and probationary sentence, rejecting his arguments that the jury instruction on obscenity was unconstitutional and that an alcohol prohibition condition was an abuse of discretion.
The court affirmed on both issues. The trial court properly instructed the jury on obscenity consistent with Miller v. California and Pope v. Illinois without constitutional violation. The alcohol prohibition was a valid special condition of probation because the presentence investigation report established Austin's propensity toward alcohol, distinguishing this case from precedent striking similar conditions.
[1] The third prong of the Miller obscenity test, concerning serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, is to be assessed by whether a reasonable person woul…
[2] A trial court has discretion in whether to instruct a jury to apply the reasonable person standard when determining the value prong of the obscenity test.
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The proper inquiry is not whether an ordinary member of any given community would find serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value in allegedly obscene material, but whether a reasonable person would find such value in the material, taken as a whole.”
Pope v. Illinois standard clarifying the third prong of the Miller obscenity test; the court held this clarified rather than modified Miller
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAustin showed a minor several movies depicting fully or partially nude adults engaging in sex acts. At trial, the court instructed the jury on obsceni…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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Michael J. Austin (“Appellant”) appeals his conviction and probationary sentence for violating section 847.0133, Florida Statutes (2009), which makes it a third-degree felony to “knowingly sell, rent, loan, give away, distribute, transmit, or show any obscene material to a minor.”1 Citing Pope v. Illinois, 481 U.S. 497, 107 S.Ct. 1918, 95 L.Ed.2d 439 (1987), Appellant asserts the trial court should have modified the jury instruction on obscenity to include a “reasonable person” standard. He also contends the court abused its discretion by proscribing alcohol consumption as a special condition of probation. We affirm Appellant’s conviction and sentence for the reasons that follow.
I. Jury Instruction
At Appellant’s trial, the State presented evidence that Appellant showed a minor several movies in which fully or partially nude adults were engaging in sex acts. In giving the instruction on what is “obscene”2 material, the trial court told the jury it must find that:
a.The average person applying the contemporary community standards of Santa Rosa County, Florida, would find that the material taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest.
b. The material depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.
c. The material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
The instruction tracks the language in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973), setting out the three-pronged test for obscenity:
The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest; (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
(Citations omitted). Appellant does not contend that the court’s instruction violates Miller. He posits instead that the Supreme Court in Pope v. Illinois, 481 U.S. 497, 107 S.Ct. 1918, 95 L.Ed.2d 439 (1987), modified Miller by adding a reasonable person standard to the third prong of the Miller test. Thus, he argues, omission of the standard from the jury instruction given at his trial rendered the instruction unconstitutional.
Indeed, the Court in Pope stated that “[t]he proper inquiry is not whether an ordinary member of any given community *405would find serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value in allegedly obscene material, but whether a reasonable person would find such value in the material, taken as a whole.” 481 U.S. at 500-501, 107 S.Ct. 1918. But we disagree with Appellant that this statement modified Miller.
The jury instruction at issue in Pope specifically applied community standards to all three parts of the Miller test. Holding the instruction incorrect and unconstitutional under Miller, the Court in Pope explained:
There is no suggestion in our cases that the question of the value of an allegedly obscene work is to be determined by reference to community standards. Indeed, our cases are to the contrary. Smith v. United States, 431 U.S. 291, 97 S.Ct. 1756, 52 L.Ed.2d 324 (1977), held that, in a federal prosecution for mailing obscene materials, the first and second prongs of the Miller test-appeal to prurient interest and patent offensiveness-are issues of fact for the jury to determine applying contemporary community standards. The Court then observed that, unlike prurient appeal and patent offensiveness, “[ljiterary, artistic, political, or scientific value ... is not discussed in Miller in terms of contemporary community standards.” Id., 431 U.S. at 301, 97 S.Ct., at 1763 (citing F. Schauer, The Law of Obscenity 123-124 (1976)). This comment was not meant to point out an oversight in the Miller opinion, but to call attention to and approve a deliberate choice.
In Miller itself, the Court was careful to point out that “[t]he First Amendment protects works which, taken as a whole have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, regardless of whether the government or a majority of the people approve of the ideas these works represent.” 413 U.S., at 34, 93 S.Ct., at 2620.
481 U.S. at 500, 107 S.Ct. 1918 (emphasis added). We conclude from these passages that Miller “deliberately],” though implicitly, employs the objective reasonable person standard in the third prong of the obscenity test, and that Pope clarified, but did not modify, the Court’s earlier decision.
Moreover, we discern nothing in Pope requiring a court to include the reasonable person standard when instructing jurors on the value prong of the obscenity test. Rather, the Court suggests that “[i]n an obscenity prosecution the trial court, in its discretion, could instruct the jury to decide the value question by considering whether a reasonable person would find serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value in the work, taken as a whole.” 481 U.S. at 501 n. 3, 107 S.Ct. 1918. Accord State v. Anderson, 322 N.C. 22, 366 S.E.2d 459, 471 (1988) (recognizing that “the literary, artistic, political, or scientific value of material is to be determined based upon whether a ‘reasonable person’ would find such value in the material, taken as a whole,” but that the Supreme Court in Pope “has indicated that the decision in a particular case as to whether to instruct the jury to apply the reasonable person test in this regard is a matter in the discretion of the trial court.”). Appellant presents no other authority — and we have found none — mandating that the reasonable person standard be made part of a jury instruction on obscenity.3
*406Unlike Pope, where the trial court incorrectly applied community standards to part three of the Miller test, the court in Appellant’s case correctly instructed jurors to apply contemporary community standards only to the prurient interest and patent offensiveness prongs of the test. As to the value prong, the court did not refer to community standards in explaining to jurors what to consider in determining whether the movies Appellant showed a minor had literary, artistic, political or scientific value. The trial court’s decision not to add the reasonable person standard to the obscenity instruction was neither a constitutional violation nor an abuse of discretion.
II. Special Condition of Probation
The trial court sentenced Appellant to 48 months’ probation and imposed, as a special condition, a requirement that Appellant “abstain entirely from the use or possession of alcohol” during the probationary period. Appellant argues the condition should be stricken because it is not reasonably related to his crime.
Trial courts have broad discretion to impose conditions of probation, but special conditions must be reasonably related to rehabilitation. See Stephens v. State, 659 So.2d 1303, 1304 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995). Biller v. State, 618 So.2d 734, (Fla.1993), held that a special probation condition “ ‘is invalid if it (1) has no relationship to the crime of which the offender was convicted, (2) relates to conduct which is not in itself criminal, and (3) requires or forbids conduct which is not reasonably related to future criminality,”’ (quoting Rodriguez v. State, 378 So.2d 7, 9 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979)). Id. at 734-35. All three Rodriguez factors must exist for an appellate court to strike a special probation condition as an abuse of discretion. Stephens, 659 So.2d at 1304.
In Biller, the supreme court struck a condition prohibiting the petitioner from using or possessing alcohol while on probation for carrying a concealed firearm and carrying a concealed weapon. 618 So.2d at 735. The court reasoned there was no connection between alcohol use and the petitioner’s crimes, alcohol use by adults is legal, and “there was nothing in the record, such as information in a presentence investigation report, which would suggest that Biller has a propensity towards alcohol or that his judgment becomes impaired as a consequence of using it.” Id. In the instant case, two of the Rodriguez factors clearly are met: nothing in the record connects Appellant’s alcohol use to the crime he was convicted of, and it is legal for Appellant, who is an adult, to use alcohol. But unlike Biller, the record here contains information indicating Appellant’s “propensity towards alcohol.” Specifically, the presentence investigation report (“PSI”) reveals that in Arkansas in 2005, Appellant was found guilty and convicted of DUI. He failed to complete court-ordered substance abuse treatment. The following year, Appellant was arrested in Pensacola for DUI, pled to the lesser-included offense of reckless driving, and was ordered to attend first offender DUI school and receive substance abuse treatment. Further, the report states that Appellant admitted having used alcohol “to mask things that bothered him.” Under the reasoning in Biller, the information in the PSI suffices to negate the third Rodri *407 guez factor. Therefore, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by prohibiting Appellant from consuming or possessing alcohol as a special condition of probation.
AFFIRMED.
BENTON, C.J., Concurs With Opinion; CLARK, J., Concurs in Result Only.
concurring.
“ ‘Florida law is clear that a defendant is entitled to have a jury instruction on any valid defense supported by the evidence,’ but ‘a trial judge is not required to give an instruction where there is no nexus between the evidence in the record and the requested instruction.’ Mora v. State, 814 So.2d 322, 380 (Fla.2002).” Wheeler v. State, 4 So.3d 599, 605 (Fla.2009). In “ ‘order to be entitled to a special jury instruction, [the defendant] must prove: (1) the special instruction was supported by the evidence; (2) the standard instruction did not adequately cover the theory of defense; and ,(3) the special instruction was a correct statement of the law and not misleading or confusing.’ Stephens v. State, 787 So.2d 747, 756 (Fla.2001) (footnotes omitted).” Id. While the special instruction here was a correct statement of the law and not misleading or confusing, appellant has not made a persuasive case that the special instruction was supported by the evidence or that the standard instruction was inadequate. See Lee v. State, 214 Ga.App. 164, 447 S.E.2d 323, 325 (1994); State v. Anderson, 322 N.C. 22, 366 S.E.2d 459, 471 (1988).
BENTON, C.J.,
concurring.
“ ‘Florida law is clear that a defendant is entitled to have a jury instruction on any valid defense supported by the evidence,’ but ‘a trial judge is not required to give an instruction where there is no nexus between the evidence in the record and the requested instruction.’ Mora v. State, 814 So. 2d 322, 380 (Fla.2002).” Wheeler v. State, 4 So. 3d 599, 605 (Fla.2009). In “ ‘order to be entitled to a special jury instruction, [the defendant] must prove: (1) the special instruction was supported by the evidence; (2) the standard instruction did not adequately cover the theory of defense; and ,(3) the special instruction was a correct statement of the law and not misleading or confusing.’ Stephens v. State, 787 So. 2d 747, 756 (Fla.2001) (footnotes omitted).” Id. While the special instruction here was a correct statement of the law and not misleading or confusing, appellant has not made a persuasive case that the special instruction was supported by the evidence or that the standard instruction was inadequate. See Lee v. State, 214 Ga.App. 164, 447 S.E. 2d 323, 325 (1994); State v. Anderson, 322 N.C. 22, 366 S.E. 2d 459, 471 (1988).
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Pulecio v. State, 160 So. 3d 556 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015)…inal, and (3) requires or forbids conduct which is not reasonably related to future criminality.” Id. “All three Rodriguez factors must exist for an appellate court to strike a special probation condition as an abuse of discretion.” Austin v. State, 67 So. 3d 403, 406 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011). However, a special condition of probation will be upheld if one of the fac [*558] tors outlined in Rodriguez exists. Biller v. State, 618 So. 2d 734, 735 (Fla.1993). Here, there is no dispute as to the first two factors: t…
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Marshall v. State, 127 So. 3d 720 (Fla. 5th DCA 2013)…ence investigation report, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in imposing drug and alcohol treatment related requirements as special conditions of probation. See Biller v. State, 618 So. 2d 734 (Fla.1993); Austin v. State, 67 So. 3d 403, 406-07 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011). AFFIRMED. EVANDER, COHEN and WALLIS, JJ., concur.…
Authorities Cited (11 total)
- Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (U.S. 1973)
- Pope v. Illinois, 481 U.S. 497 (U.S. 1987)
- Stephens v. State, 787 So. 2d 747 (Fla. 2001)
- Smith v. United States, 431 U.S. 291 (U.S. 1977)
- Biller v. State, 618 So. 2d 734 (Fla. 1993)
- Rodriguez v. State, 378 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979)
- Mora v. State, 814 So. 2d 322 (Fla. 2002)
- Wheeler v. State, 4 So. 3d 599 (Fla. 2009)
- Stephens v. State, 659 So. 2d 1303 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995)
- Capurso v. Dibling, 531 So. 2d 364 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988)