H-1012              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1537

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State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

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 1/27/89 and referred to Committee on Judiciary.

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:

          Any victim of a crime under chapter 9A.44 RCW shall have a civil cause of action for damages against a producer, dealer, distributor, or exhibitor of erotic or sexually explicit material, if the victim proves by a preponderance of the evidence that (1) the person convicted of the crime read or viewed such erotic or sexually explicit material prior to the commission of the crime, and (2) the convicted person's reading or viewing of the erotic or sexually explicit material was a proximate cause of the commission of the crime.