You are a prosecutor in Fairfax, VA and you receive a report filed by a homeowner complaining that her next-door neighbors are sunbathing in the nude and violating public decency laws. Because the homeowner has 3 small children, she wants her neighbors to stop doing this.
To date, however, they have refused. Local police have spoken to the sunbathers, who responded that they are allowed to sunbathe naked on their own property in their backyard.
They argue that it would be different if they were out on the street or in the front of the house. The only divider between the two homes is a four-foot picket fence.
Review Code of Virginia, Section 18.2-387:
18.2-387. Indecent exposure.
Every person who intentionally makes an obscene display or exposure of his person, or the private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where others are present, or procures another to so expose himself, shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
No person shall be deemed to be in violation of this section for breastfeeding a child in any public place or any place where others are present.
(Code 1950, 18.1-236; 1960, c. 233; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1994, c. 398.)
Answer the following questions:
a. Are the sunbathers guilty of indecent exposures? Why or why not?
b. Are there any other crimes for which they could be found guilty?
c. What are the various solutions available for this problem?