INDEX
Reading edition
PAGE
I. The question presented is one of law, which the Court should decide 20
II. The test is the literary as distinct from the pornographic 21
III. In applying this test, all reasonable doubt should be resolved in favor of the book 30
IV. In judging the book by the standards above indicated, it must be read as a whole, and, on that basis, it must be upheld even though it may contain portions which would not stand the test if isolated 31
V. The book, read as a whole, sustains the test of the law 34
VI. The passages, to which reference has been made in the complaint originally filed in Special Sessions, are not indecent 57
VII. In conclusion 68
Court of General Sessions of the Peace
IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK.
People of the State of New
York
AGAINST
Guy Holt, Robert M. McBride
& Company and
Robert M. McBride
Brief for Defendants on Motion to Direct an Acquittal.
The defendants have moved for a directed acquittal at the close of the People’s case. The defendants did not dispute upon the trial the facts which went to make up such case as the People had. That case is that the defendants had in their possession, with intent to sell (they are publishers) a book, “Jurgen”, by Mr. James Branch Cabell; and it is contended that the book is lewd and obscene within Section 1141 of the Penal Law.