Judge Frees "Cannibal Cop" Who Shared His Fantasies Online 185
AthanasiusKircher (1333179) writes The story is classic: Boy meets Girl. Boy likes Girl. Boy goes on the internet and writes about his fantasies that involve killing and eating Girl. Boy goes to jail. In this case, the man in question, NYC police officer Gilberto Valle, didn't act on his fantasies — he just shared them in a like-minded internet forum. Yesterday, Valle was released from jail after a judge overturned his conviction on appeal. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe wrote that Valle was "guilty of nothing more than very unconventional thoughts... We don't put people in jail for their thoughts. We are not the thought police and the court system is not the deputy of the thought police." The judge concluded that there was insufficient evidence, since "this is a conspiracy that existed solely in cyberspace" and "no reasonable juror could have found that Valle actually intended to kidnap a woman... the point of the chats was mutual fantasizing about committing acts of sexual violence on certain women." (A New York magazine article covered the details of the case and the implications of the original conviction earlier this year.)
Re:Would be different (Score:5, Funny)
Tom Clancy penned a novel in 1994 that ended with a 767 being flown into the United States Capitol. Seven years before 9/11. Nobody put him in jail, before or after.
Because it was mostly politicians being killed. And because Harrison Ford survived.
Sarcasm-fu (Score:0, Funny)
Hey everyone, mod up the parent post because of its cooler-than-you post that drips so much juicy sarcasm you can fill a bucket with it. It's all patently true!
Government (which one?) is sentient - it has fantasies! Having a family and working hard are not values we should hold as a society! These things are obviously filthy and will only lead to the degradation of society! And buying things? That's for losers! The government should just provide us with everything, or you should steal it because it makes society better!
Seriously - next time, think twice about committing your idiotic comments to the discussion.