H-1988              _______________________________________________

                                          SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL NO. 1537

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By House Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Representatives Hargrove, Padden, Locke, Belcher, Wineberry, Tate, Heavey, Fuhrman, Youngsman, Rasmussen, Haugen, Patrick, Wolfe, Brough, Rector, Bowman, Ferguson, Todd and P. King)

Read first time 2/24/89.

AN ACT Relating to pornography; and adding a new section to chapter 9.68 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 9.68 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) For the purposes of this section:

          (a) "Violent sexual offense" means a crime under RCW 9A.44.030, 9A.44.040, 9A.44.050, or 9A.44.100.

          (b) "Violent pornographic material" means erotic or sexually explicit material which depicts acts or representations of acts that would be crimes under RCW 9A.32.040, 9A.32.050, 9A.32.055, 9A.36.011, 9A.36.021, 9A.36.031, 9A.36.041, 9A.44.030, 9A.44.040, 9A.44.050, or 9A.44.100.

          (2) Any victim of a violent sexual offense shall have a civil cause of action for damages against a producer, dealer, distributor, or exhibitor of violent pornographic material, if the victim proves by a preponderance of the evidence that (a) the person convicted of the crime read or viewed such violent pornographic material prior to the commission of the crime, and (b) the convicted persons' reading or viewing of the violent pornographic material was a proximate cause of the commission of the crime.

          (3) No property and casualty insurance company providing liability insurance coverage to a producer, dealer, distributor, or exhibitor of violent pornographic material shall be required to provide coverage for liability imposed under this section, nor shall any liability insurance policy covering such persons on or after the effective date of this section be deemed to provide coverage for the liability imposed under this section unless the policy explicitly states by endorsement that such coverage is provided.