Word: scienter
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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None of the obscenity cases promises to answer lower-court prayers for clarification of last term's Ginzburg decision. But two may clarify the doctrine of scienter (to know), the requirement that a smut seller must have "guilty knowledge" that his wares are obscene before he is criminally liable. In a New York case, Times Square Bookstore Clerk Robert Redrup was convicted of selling paperbacks titled Lust Pool and Shame Agent to a plainclothes cop who asked him why he sold such "garbage." Said Redrup: "There's worse stuff around." Redrup argues that his comment failed to prove...
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