Penis Tattoo 'Sext' Message Appeal: Court Sides With Sender
If you're a Georgia man who loves to sext pictures of your penis tattoo, rejoice. The Georgia Supreme Court has sided with a man who sexted a picture of his tattooed penis to a lady who wasn't at all impressed.
According to the court, Charles Leo Warren III should not have been charged under a criminal indecency law when he sexted an image of his tattooed penis, UPI reports. Warren's genital tattoo reads: "STRONG E nuf 4 A MAN BUT Made 4 A WOMAN."
Why did the court side with Warren and his unsolicited sext message? Three numbers: 16-12-81.
Section 16-12-81
No that's not a winning lottery combination; 16-12-81 is Georgia's obscenity code. Under Title 16 Section 16-12-81, nude or sexual material must include written notice in at least "8-point boldface type," warning the recipient of the content's sexual nature.
Georgia's 16-12-81 law basically requires notice akin to the warnings you see on TV before something graphic is aired. Warren's pecker picture didn't include this warning, so he was charged with unlawful "Distribution of Material Depicting Nudity or Sexual Conduct" for not complying with the 16-12-81 notice requirement.
But this stick-y situation was a little different because it involved a sext, referring to a sexually explicit text message.
Court Gives State the Shaft
The notice Warren would've been required to send under the statute would have read as follows:
"Notice -- The material contained herein depicts nudity or sexual conduct. If the viewing of such material could be offensive to the addressee, this container should not be opened but returned to the sender" (emphasis added).
But Georgia's Chief Justice Hugh Thomson clarified that the code only applies to tangible material that's delivered in a tangible manner -- meaning it "has a tangible envelope or container on which the notice can be imprinted."
Because Warren did not send his schlong shot through the mail, he didn't violate 16-12-81, the court ruled.
Further, the court explained that text messages aren't covered by the Georgia code "merely because that form of communication did not exist when § 16-12-81 was enacted in 1970," UPI reports.
That's good news for Warren, who could have faced up to three years in prison had he been convicted, UPI reports.
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