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Halo 3 Criticized In Murder Conviction
oldwindways writes "An Ohio teen was found guilty of murdering his mother and shooting his father in the head after they took away his copy of Halo 3. One has to wonder if this is going to have any effect on the games industry. Clearly, the AP thought they could stir up something controversial by asking the IP owner for a statement: 'Microsoft, which owns the intellectual property for the game, declined to comment beyond a statement saying: "We are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case."' I suppose the good news is they did not accept his insanity plea, so no one can claim that Halo 3 drove him insane. Even so, I don't think anything good can come out of this for gamers."
Unfortunately, it seems somebody can claim that the game was a contributing factor; the judge who presided over this case said he believes that the 17-year-old defendant "had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever." GamePolitics has further details from the judge's statement. It doesn't help that the boy's lawyers used video game addiction as a defense.
"I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
The Spawn Point defence should be filed along with the Chewbacca defence in the big book of crazy law.
I can see why playing Halo (or, indeed, most games, with the notable exception of NetHack) might make you believe that. If only he had watched anime instead, he would have been taught the cruel reality of murder.
You know it's flamebaiting to speak about people respawning millenia ago.
he believes that the 17-year-old defendant "had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
If someone as old as 17 doesn't understand this basic fact of life, then there's obviously something wrong that has nothing to do with the video game.
Clearly Halo 3 is at fault. If they had some non-respawning game types this would never have happened...
This game is so awesome, you'll kill anybody who takes it away from you!
(It's that good).
I record my sleeptalking
somebody is watching a little too much Dexter. :)
Balderdash!
I'm so fucking upset about this matter, the situation among youths of today is absurd!
I mean, come one, how the fuck can you fail murdering your own dad?! How hard can it be? Learn to finish something damnit, lazy ass kids of today!
This shall be the last post you hear from me, you insensitive clod!
I hate printers.
I mean, it's not like he didn't have Halo 3 to practise his headshots :)
Microsoft... declined to comment beyond a statement saying: "We are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case."
Wow, déjà vu. That's the same thing they said when Vista was released.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Really? I killed my roommate after he accidentally wiped out a year's progress in my game of Nethack.
Oh come on, it was only 9mm. He must be one of the nonviolent priests or he'd have a fully automatic:-)
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
That's justifiable homicide, as far as I am concerned.