Redmond v. United States

• Decision Date: 23 May 1966
• Docket Number: No. 1056,1056
• Citation: Redmond v. United States, 384 U.S. 264, 86 S.Ct. 1415, 16 L.Ed.2d 521 (1966)
• Parties: William Hoyet REDMOND and Dorothy Lucille Redmond v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

384 U.S. 264

86 S.Ct. 1415

16 L.Ed.2d 521

William Hoyet REDMOND and Dorothy Lucille Redmond

v UNITED STATES.

No. 1056.

May 23, 1966.

John Jay Hooker, Jr., for petitioners.

Solicitor General Marshall, for the United States.

PER CURIAM.

The petition for certiorari is granted. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the conviction of petitioners, husband and wife, under an information charging them with violating the federal obscenity statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1461 (1964 ed.), by having mailed undeveloped films of each other posing in the nude to an out-of-state firm for developing, and having received through the mails the developed negatives and a print of each.

In response to the certiorari petition, the Solicitor General has filed a motion requesting that the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit be vacated and the cause remanded to the District Court with directions to dismiss the information. The ground of the motion is that 'the initiation of the instant prosecution was not in accord with policies which had previously been formulated within the Department (of Justice) for the guidance of United States Attorneys.' The policies referred to are set forth in a memorandum to United States Attorneys, dated August 31, 1964. The memorandum states, in pertinent part, that prosecution for mailing private correspondence which is allegedly obscene 'should be the exception confined to those cases involving repeated offenders or other circumstances which may fairly be characterized as aggravated.' The Solicitor General...