Mississippi Code

Miss. Code Ann. § 97-29-103 (2026)

Definitions

✓ current as of July 2026

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(1) Material or performance is obscene if:
- (a) To the average person, applying contemporary community standards, taken as a whole, it appeals to the prurient interest, that is, a lustful, erotic, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex or excretion; and
- (b) The material taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value; and
- (c) The material depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined in subparagraphs (i) through (v) below:
  - (i) Acts of sexual intercourse, heterosexual or homosexual, normal or perverted, actual or simulated;
  - (ii) Acts of masturbation;
  - (iii) Acts involving excretory functions or lewd exhibition of the genitals;
  - (iv) Acts of bestiality or the fondling of sex organs of animals; or
  - (v) Sexual acts of flagellation, torture or other violence indicating a sadomasochistic sexual relationship.

(2) Undeveloped photographs, molds, printing plates and the like shall be deemed obscene material, notwithstanding that processing or other acts may be required to make the obscenity patent or to distribute it.

(3) "Performance" means a play, motion picture, dance or other exhibition performed before an audience.

(4) "Patently offensive" means so offensive on its face as to affront current community standards of decency.

(5) "Wholesale distributes" means to distribute for the purpose of resale.

(6) "Material" means any book, magazine, newspaper, advertisement, pamphlet, poster, print, picture, figure, image, drawing, description, motion picture film, phonographic record, recording tape, video tape, or other tangible thing producing, reproducing or capable of producing or reproducing an image, picture, sound or sensation through sight, sound or touch, but it does not include an actual three-dimensional sexual device as defined in Section 97-29-105.

Laws, 1983, ch. 498, § 2, eff. 7/1/1983.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases, 1985–1998 · leading case: Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U.S. 491 (1985).

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Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U.S. 491 (1985). · cites it 2× “" Miss. Code Ann. § 97-29-103 (1)(a) (Supp.”

J&b Ent., Inc. v. City of Jackson, Mississippi, 152 F.3d 362 (5th Cir. 1998). · cites it 4× “J&B further contends that the Ordinance is inconsistent with Miss.Code Ann. § 97-29-103, which defines obscenity, because the Ordinance contains only one prong of § 97-29-103’s three-part obscenity test.”

— Miss. Code Ann. § 97-29-103(l)(b) — 1 case

J&b Ent., Inc. v. City of Jackson, Mississippi, 152 F.3d 362 (5th Cir. 1998). “J&B further contends that the Ordinance is inconsistent with Miss.Code Ann. § 97-29-103, which defines obscenity, because the Ordinance contains only one prong of § 97-29-103’s three-part obscenity test.”

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