Counsel for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund have submitted four motions to dismiss the charges against retailer Gordon Lee, owner of Legends in Rome, GA. Last February, the Fund initiated Lee’s defense against charges resulting from accidentally distributing Alternative Comics #2, a Free Comic Book Day book from 2004, to a minor. The anthology includes the story “The Salon” by Nick Bertozzi, which contains a segment depicting Picasso in the nude. The Fund has already spent in excess of $20,000 defending this case.
CBLDF filed four motions on May 2. The first motion seeks to dismiss the John Doe counts. The second seeks to dismiss both felony counts under the rule of lenity, which requires that when a defendant is charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for the same conduct, the lesser penalty must apply. The third motion seeks to dismiss the felony counts on the grounds that Georgia’s Distribution of Material Depicting Nudity or Sexual Conduct is unconstitutional on its face and as applied. The fourth motion seeks to dismiss the misdemeanor counts of Distribution of Material Harmful to Minors on the grounds that the law is unconstitutional on its face and as applied to this case.
Hearings on these motions have yet to be scheduled, but are expected to occur in the summer. To support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s defense of this case, please visit http://www.cbldf.org for information on membership and donations.
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has launched a series of auctions to assist in the defense of Gordon Lee. This week’s items will launch today at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. They are:
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 2, #1 — Signed by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill
Batman #608, RRP Edition — Signed by Jim Lee
Sandman #50, variant cover — Signed by Neil Gaiman
In The Shadow of No Towers poster — Signed with orginal drawing by Art Spiegelman
Angry Christ Comix — signed with original Dawn drawing by Joe Linsner
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein says, “Waging the aggressive defense of a First Amendment case requires the best attorneys, and the best attorneys require a lot of money. We’re launching this auction initiative to help offset the investment we’ve already made in this case, and to help shore up money for the trial. We’re lucky to have received a number of generous donations of art and collectibles and over the coming weeks will be releasing them to the public to assist in our cases. I hope people will be generous in their bidding, because it comes at a time where every dollar we receive makes a major difference.”
ITEM! Call for Art Donations
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is calling upon artists and collectors to make donations of original art and rare collectibles to assist in summer fundraising. CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein explains, “Summer represents our busiest fundraising season. We run auctions at the major shows including Comic Con and Wizard World where the money raised can sometimes pay for an entire phase of a case. This summer we’re calling upon the creative and collecting communities to make a donation of original art or similar rare collectible for us to include in those auctions. A piece of art that may be resting in someone’s file drawer can help us pay for a motion to be written or an argument to be waged.”
Donors of art will receive a letter of acknowledgment from the CBLDF that includes the amount the piece raised on auction. Donations can be sent to: CBLDF, PO Box 693, Northampton, MA 01061. For shipping information to a street address, please e-mail Charles Brownstein at director@cbldf.org.
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