HARRY HUGHES, Governor

2501

CHAPTER 242

(Senate Bill 22)

AN ACT concerning

Public Display - Minors Law

FOR the purpose of altering the mental element which makes
it a crime to display certain material to minors at
certain locations.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,

Article 27 - Crimes and Punishments

Section 419(a)

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1976 Replacement Volume and 1981 Supplement)

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That section(s) of the Annotated Code of Maryland
read(s) as follows:

Article 27 - Crimes and Punishments

419.

(a) (1) A person may not willfully or knowingly engage
in the business of selling, showing, advertising for sale,
or distributing to any person under the age of 18 years any
still picture, photograph, book, pocket book, pamphlet, or
magazine the cover or content of which is principally made
up of descriptions or depictions of illicit sex, or which
consists of pictures of nude or partially denuded figures
posed or presented in a manner which an average person
applying contemporary community standards would find, taken
as a whole, appeals to prurient interest and lacks serious
literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

(2)  An owner, operator, franchisee, manager, or
any employee with managerial responsibility of a newsstand
or any other place of business may not [openly] AND
KNOWINGLY display at the newsstand or other place of
business, if it is frequented by persons under the age of 18
years, any of the items whose sale, showing, or advertising
is prohibited by paragraph (1) of this subsection.

(3)  Violation of this section is a misdemeanor.

SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act
shall take effect July 1, 1982.