Constitutional Law
Adult Filmmaker Loses Double Jeopardy Bid Based on Kozinski Mistrial Declaration
Posted Sep 23, 2008, 08:25 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A federal judge has ruled the double jeopardy clause doesn’t bar a new obscenity trial for an adult filmmaker whose case ended in a mistrial because of a controversy surrounding Judge Alex Kozinski.
U.S. District Judge George King of Los Angeles said Kozinski acted with “due deliberation” when he declared a mistrial during oral arguments in the case, report the Associated Press and the Daily Journal (sub. req.). Kozinski acted because of controversy over reports that he had posted sexually explicit materials on a personal website.
Kozinski, chief judge of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had been randomly selected to preside in the trial of Ira Isaacs. Roger Jon Diamond, who represents Isaccs, said he would appeal King’s ruling. Isaacs' films depict bestiality, defecation and urination, but he maintains they are “shock art” rather than obscenity.