Cleland's attitude toward sex is "more healthy" than that of many modern novels, Konigsberg testified.
"Is it pornographic?" Interrupted Judge Macaulay during Konigsberg's testimony.
"What do you mean by pornographic, your honor?"
'Don't you know, Mr. Konigsberg?"
"I know what I mean by pornographic. I don't know what you mean."
"Then don't answer my question."
In his summary argument, the prosecutor charged that "no witness can in good conscience say that Fanny Hill is not obscene, impure, and indecent." These three terms appear in the Commonwealth statute and constitute the standards used by the Massachusetts Obscene Literature Control Commission, which recommended prosecution of Fanny Hill. The action against the book itself was taken by Attorney General Edward W. Brooke. The case is formally titled Brooke vs. A book Named John Cleland's "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" (Commonly known as "Fanny Hill").
Sullivan criticized Putnam's for calling witnesses "from only one walk of life." He suggested that the testimony of housewives might have been relevant