What a bunch of BS I played Hitman in the past and have never one time thought about killing some one.

So I hope this kid get the Death penalty. Not because of him saying Hitman is the reason but because what gives him the right to still be alive when He took some ones life.

BlackIceJoe

The attempt to divert the blame from this kid himself and place it firmly upon a video game is laughable and unfortunately typical. I personally feel blaming the murder on a video game trivializes the entire situation because listening to the report it sounds like this was a disturbed boy that never got any help.

Deus Ex Machina

Are they honestly going to try and suggest that without watching this game, an 18-year-old couldn't figure out that if you hit someone from behind that they wouldn't see you?

The only responsibility lays with the person that committed the act -- while there may be mitigating circumstances the judge could to into account while sentencing, that should affect whether the person is guilty or not.

jayntampa

@diodegrey: Hey... I'm a clueless adult and even I get it.

No need to equate being old with being stupid. We've got enough problems just being old. ;)

dv8godd

I'm not sure how much more of this I can take...

CaptainHarrison

@Nexus6: You don't keep psychopaths....you euthanize them. Clearly if someone can behead and burn a fellow human we really don't need them wasting other people's oxygen and food and such.

krunkjuice

Acunia

Videogames have become the Heavy Metal of the 00's which is gonna end just as well as it did when they started suing Judas Priest for the content of their lyrics.

This is a very unfortunate event, those kids deserve the full weight of the Law, I can see how the whole Hitman connection (Which BTW is tenuous at best) is going to buy them time and sympathy from those who prefer to blame everything instead of putting the blame on their own actions.

zoesch

@Ashurahori: If kotaku had sc highlights id nominate your comment.

I honestly want to know about the next hitman game. I have to be crazy but id give up mgs4 and gta for the next hitman game, no joke. They never made me want to do what this kid did though seeing as how none of the sawing and burning is possible in game. They did make me want to steal clothes however...

snakepliskin

Has anyone noticed how lightly commenters respond to this kind of story, but as soon as it's a toddler that is killed everybody is suddenly a bastion of sensitivity and integrity?

I don't have a strong opinion on one reaction or the other, I'm just pointing out the inconsistency.

Snaphaunce

He's got the crazy eyes, we should lock people up for them alone. The quote didn't make sense to me.

Pornosaur

more clueless adults that just don't get it

diodegrey

mixmastermind

@phalanges:

Yeah, the kid has SERIOUS issues.

dead_red_eyes

He's clearly a psychopath. LIFE IN PRISON & THROW AWAY THE KEY. Too bad it's not a Turkish or Eastern European prison because frankly American prisons are a joke.

Nexus6

its detroit what the hell do people expect?

dechire

Very tragic event none the less but just because he killed someone from behind its automatically a video game gesture? What about tv or the internet. either way this kids got serious issues......

Elijah Man

@Mikazukinoyaiba: Prosecution actually isn't suppose to prove that the defendant is guilty no matter what (only if it's according to the court of law). There's been plenty of times where (I think it's stated something like...) due to this new evidence the prosecution withdraws their case.

tnx3

Reading about his crime made me want to barf. He's a fucking nut job.

phalanges

@turbofreak:

Probably not, because it's a lazy/easy defense. Before video games they said music killed people ... which is just freaking ridiculous.

dead_red_eyes

This is extremely unfortunate for gaming that such a sick individual even be associated with it. I don't think blaming video games is going to help the defense's cause either, only harm people's perceptions of gamers.

Callidux

I don't remember killing someone from the back, cutting the head off and burning the body from Hitman. Hmm.

dead_red_eyes

Will video games ever NOT be the scapegoat of every politician and lawyer. I love the hitman games, but you don't see me sawing off peoples heads. He probably saw it in a movie, those are always way more violent than games. Hostel anyone?

turbofreak

I would point out how ridiculous this is, but let's face it.

With the readers we have here, I would be stating the obvious.

I don't necessarily condemn the defense, although they could have used a better argument.

Seeing how the defense is paid to try their best to prove someone innocent, regardless of whether it is true or not.

While the prosecution is paid to prove a person guilty, no matter what.

Mikazukinoyaiba

This story has been in the news for months now in my state, where it took place. They were kids being stupid, sadistic kids, and nowhere did video games ever come up. None of the news agencies and publications up here ever once mentioned a video game link, but leave it to CNN...

Custom Reality

Ugh, this is probably gonna get ugly. More fuel to the fire for JT.

dead_red_eyes

no, he didn't even play it apparently. He "watched" it, so can we slip in that suddenly it was all those violent movies in the mainstream, shift it bcak onto movies again?
On a slight side note, does anyone else find it annoying that if we get angry about all this stereotypical blaming of videogames cause violence, we are told that it's the games that are making us angry about it. I was actually told that by my psychology teacher when i started answering back in a debate on the subject in lesson. Sorry, rant over now.

hirostroud

Sawing someone's head off? Let's blame a videogame that he "watched." Huh? Terrorist video of beheading? Never heard of it... But they were probably "watching" games, too.

Eltigro

That is some dark humour right there Mike :P

Anyway, the context made me sick to my stomach. "stabbing him multiple times in the back before sawing off his head and burning his body" - Disgusting.

Candlejack

@SilentPredator: Ever read Native Son? Or seen a copy drama? Bone fragments from the ashes and general stupidity.

Maybe he kept the head in a safe under his bed. I don't know as I don't read CNN if I can avoid it.

2NinjasTapedTogether

I was watching the trial on CNN.com live on yesterday. I heard the lawyer mention Hitman (no they meant Hitman not Manhunt) once or twice when questioning a witness (one of the guy's friends). My impression was that it didn't relate well at all to the case. The witness played down the relation of video games to this crime (as to if it really is the case or not, I don't really know didn't watch the entire trial).

tnx3

@kelptocratic: amen.

7ucky

Christ thats intense!!...

King Seafoam

These people need to stop blaming the games and blame their own pathetic mind. It is NOT the games fault because he wasn't right in the head. I've been playing violent games since I was seven, and I am NOT messed up at all. Why? Because I can tell the difference between what happens in the game and real life. Any one who lacks that function shouldn't be allowed EVER to see these or play these. Parents, do your damn jobs.

Amazon_Chris

Not to sound cold-hearted, but if he chopped off the head and burned the body, how did they manage to catch him?

SilentPredator

So basically he had no personal reasons for killing that person, and just felt like it because he played Hitman?
This world doesn't make any sense.
I do agree with you on Manhunt..

k_dash

Hmm, it says 24 comments on this post, yet I see none... Anyway...

It really saddens me to read about people finding new and creative ways to blame their failings on anything but themselves.
This is nothing new, man has always strived to find ways out of anything. The age of modern science has given many new avenues for people to ween their way out of any crime, and it can be sad. Sure there are legit excuses for committing a crime (psychological mostly), yet people still try to put blame on anything...

Videogames is still a relatively new medium and so this scapegoating will be around for awhile to come before people start to wise up. Everyone must learn to live with it, and just ignore or see through the useless media spewing that takes place on an almost daily basis now. One day... Many moons from now, video games will finally get its name cleared, and our eyes will turn towards the new scapegoat of that time. My guess: Hoverboarding and the revival of spandex.

Scazza

Well the least we can say is... he wasn't having sex in public! Thank goodness for that, right 37% of the American population?

2NinjasTapedTogether

Oh yeah i remember the mission on Hitman where you have to cut off the guys head and then burn him.

your suit is black NOT.

On a side note, i doubt ill have many peaceful dreams this week with that kids eyes now permenantly burnt into my membrane.

EmeraldCockroach

this kid needs to be dead...actually he needs the same crime happen to him...eye for an eye.

BOMxAgonyxScenex

Because, you know the news showing beheadings or just the regular every day violence over in Iraq isn't an influence. It's not an influence because it's news. I hate the news media and I wish they would quit with the ratings grabbing fear mongering sensationalism.

Sollus

This was in my local news quite a bit ago and all the reasons they reported that were suspected had nothing to do videogames.

I guess it just makes for a better story on national news to get viewers when fingers are pointed at videogames.

Lstormy10

Last time I played Hitman I dont remember there being a function to "Cut off the head and burn the body"

Skitzoap

This has been a huge story here in Michigan since it broke a few months ago. It seems like any story involving someone under 20 and violence immediately gets linked to gaming and how it's corrupting our youth. Boo, sensationalist stories.

shadowdude55

I also seriously doubt there are people that are THAT fanatical about Hitman.

Iceking5

Holy hell... when will the bullshit ever end?

Vidril

Hmmm... I find his lack of baldness disturbing!

ZinkO: The Game (the kind you just lost)

@ShaggE:

Second.

Scruffy_the_Janitor

OBJECTION! This guy --watched-- a video game!? The screwup wasn't between Manhunt/Hitman... the man was clearly driven into a murderous rage by MARKY MARK: MAKE MY VIDEO!!

And really... who could blame him for that?

PositivelyJosh

The Video-Game Defense: "Just as ludicrous as the Chewbacca Defense...except people buy it."

TRT-X

I need to go commit some crimes so I can blame them on video games.

BRB!

BlackDove

@TaggarT6: dude, I had to read the quote 3 times just to understand wtf they're talking about.

DigiMish

On a side note, doesn't any one else see the irony that a Mafia 2 post is right below this one?

SUSPICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

TaggarT6

Awesome. The irony of this statement is that its NOT coming from prosecutor.

I don't even know what that statement is trying to accomplish, its incoherent. Was he watching/playing? what?, got impressions of killing people?..what?

/palmface.

Fyren

not this again D=

@ShaggE: i second that

GREY GECKO

In other news, a 3 year old boy was found mutilating a rabbit, sources confirm that indeed he was trying to emulate his cartoon hero, Elmer Fudge. A Warner Bros. representative was unavailible to comment.

Iceking5

I'm sure that before "Hitmanhunt", Orlewicz was a perfectly normal, well-adjusted, peaceful human being.

MisterSleep

Said thats instead of that...yes I see the irony.

TaggarT6

What a tragedy.

DigitalHero - My Brain Hurts

I am killing someone, and blaming it on Oprah.

Ashurahori

Is thats what CNN is passing off as English nowadays?

Dear Lord, I couldn't understand that excerpt at all.

TaggarT6

That is horrible. WTF is up with kids now a days where they can't play tag but baseball with someone's head and then just lopping it off and burning the body. Just the thought or mage of the the person's remains is disturbing. I am no form of power that can say this must happen and they deserver but I honestly think they should be trailed for live for doing something so gross. Blah...

Yeah i never played HItman but i think this would be more along the lines of Manhunt. Hey i mean if you throw a net into a pond you will get something and here we are just with a game. If only they could just research enough to know wtf they were talking about, but then again thats asking for to much :/

[KU]Shindokie: Wishes for a Star

my god it would hurt to be stabbed in the back...

i_lie_to_fit_in

Oh lord. Does this never end?

Eeeech... I'm going outside to drink a beer in the sun.

kelptocratic

God damn it is there no accountability anymore?

So it's no longer a person's fault for committing a crime, there's something else to blame?

Should we blaming the beer companies for causing drunk drivers to kill people?

exkon

He should go back to making codecs.

tsunami643

Disgusting. Both what happened and how these lawyers are exploiting it without even doing proper research. Simply disgusting.

HamThePharoah

No no, this isn´t news worthy. I prefer the Neogeo replica controller on gizmodo. stop that. I won´t pay attention to this kind of stuff anymore, those kind of news doesn´t deserve it.

Wyld

Apply palm to face.

ShaggE

This looks like a call for Jack Thompson...

nman

Hitman and Manhunt are close enough in terms of gameplay for his description to apply to either game. Both games are pretty well-loaded with sneaky from-behind kills.

Still, it's a flailing defense that isn't likely to go anywhere.

frostcircus

@DeRangedKaos: Well as far as determining guilt goes, I doubt a psychologist will find anything other than psychopathic tendencies in this kid. He planned this murder out, did what he thought was necessary to hide the evidence, and even though we're missing a huge amount of backstory, it doesn't add up to other kinds of aggression as of right now.

With that in mind, your point about the "video game" defense will probably stand. I can't see any judge or jury accepting that as a defense after they get the facts about the game, his relation to the game, his life history and the crime itself. If diagnosed as mentally deviant (which I think is likely) he'll just be imprisoned as such. (Not the insanity plea, but incarcerated with the fact that he is not normal from a mental standpoint.)

Krytha

His picture just ate my soul.

if you plead innocence by video game, do you also plead insanity for being stupid enough to emulate a game?

Ra on the Moon.

I consider myself a pretty well adjusted person, I don't torture animals or plan school shootings... But I, and I'm sure many people that have played a Hitman game, have gone through a level and killed every single person in a level just to see if you could pull it. And I mean every last person just to get a chuckle from the newspaper writeup of the crime at the end of the level (mainly in Blood Money). Then we can go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum where you only kill the person that you are targeted to kill. In fact the game rewards you for doing the job the right way. Sure you could call this game a death simulator, but I challenge you to find a way of killing someone that I couldn't then find a video game where you could do the same thing. Its truly a shame that people use video games as a crutch in criminal cases and then that the media goes bonanza in decrying video games as destroying our youth.

Ethereal006

@dechire: I take umbrage to that statement. I'm twenty minutes from Detroit and either you think that black cities are crime-ridden, which in itself is racist, or you seem to think Detroit is awful based on some secondhand information.

Columbine didn't occur in Detroit. Many famous killers weren't from Detroit either. Please, I urge you to think before typing out such statements.

Custom Reality

@catapult37: Well put.

jerimas

Video games have no business in the courtroom for a few different reasons, many of which are covered numerous times over. However, one aspect I can't seem to shake is that many people who have that defense are using it in place of another one, and that is that the offender has a mental disorder.

I know that the "mental disorder" defense had its time in the courtroom, much as its replacement, "the video game." But for something like this, it really should be looked at.

I listened to several of the videos on the CNN website, and a sane person with everything in place does not seriously talk about the desire to kill another living being like this teenager did. Someone needs to take a step back and really look at the psychology of him and see just what wires are crossed.

I'm not saying that the lawyers should suddenly switch to a "reason of insanity" plea, but what good will anything do for the offender if whatever is wrong with is not corrected? He'll just have problems wherever they place him, mainly because it most likely will not be where he needs to be.

I'm also not trying to excuse what he did. It was nothing short of heinous, but I am studying criminal justice and it makes me see both a victim's and an offender's angle. Trust me when I say that I am glad that Michigan's age limit for being a juvenile is 17. (which is what age he was when arrested for the murder, and I haven't found anything saying he was younger at the time the act was committed)With the age limit being as low as that, he was able to be tried in an adult court, which is where he would need to be. The lawyers and media need to stop trying to find the "easy" way out of something like and try to determine the root problem, which will always lie with the offender(s).

(Side note: the age limit in Michigan I had to look up, and if what I found is incorrect, I'm more than willing to listen to someone who has the correct age)

DeRangedKaos

Sam_Lowry

unmarkedone

So I saw the vid on CNN. It looks like the defendants are pleading self defense to the murder, decapitation, and burning of the victim. Unless he arose as a zombie after the first time they killed him, I don't know how they ever planned to get away with self-defence on the whole decapitation thing. Anyway, Some of the defendants friends testified saying that the kid had been talking about doing the crime for a while before it was actually done, basically tearing his entire defense apart. My guess is that the defense attorneys is desperate now and is trying to get an insanity judgment. Hitman was probably just the first thing that came to his mind. "My client was driven mad by watching someone else play hitman, so its not his fault he killed somebody." There is no way in hell this defense will succeed.

psycoking

if his using self defense as....his defense, couldnt we argue that his ability to defend himself with mad stabbing skills came from playing hitman, hence playing hitman saved his life! video games to the rescue imo...

hyped89

@turbofreak: Yes - games will stop being the scapegoat once a new media form comes along and becomes fairly popular. At which point people will say "Books, movies, and, games aren't treated like holovids!" xD

In seriousness however, this is a tragic case and I am just honestly saddened that the defense would attempt this line. For a game, whether Hitman, Manhunt, or Dig Dug, to influence someone like this, they would have to be very broken to start with.

Huxleyhobbes

How does blaming such a horrible act on anything count as a valid defense? The blame game has gotten way out of hand.

Wolfers

Ridiculous. If a plumber were to kill an annoying customer, they would blame Mario.

IntelSilver

*Skip down to the bottom of this post for the short version*

This is so god damn frustrating. You just want to scream at the top of your lungs saying "Shut up! Just shut the fuck up! This had NOTHING to do with Hitman! Stop blaming video games for every god damn thing wrong in this world!"

I mean, here we sit at our computers, typing away about how little sense this makes, just like we have for years, but it's not doing a god damn thing. The mainstream media is still making these ridiculous statements and it's getting to the point where all you think will get through to them is screaming.

But you can't scream at them. They'll just turn it right around and say "See? Look how aggressive these gamers are?" You can't fight ignorance and sensationalism with ignorance and sensationalism, because that only leads to more of the same. Nothing would be accomplished.

So you can't reasonably and calmly refute their points, and you can't scream at them. I'm just beginning to lose hope in this. It's starting to feel like nothing can combat this ignorance.

These people; these reporters, these lawyers, these statesmen, these cops are so entrapped in their so-called "values." They're so consumed by their predetermined judgments that it seems like nothing will ever be able to permeate those judgments and those "values."

It's just sickening. It's sad. It's disheartening. It's depressing. It's repulsive. It evokes such a lack a faith in humanity and logic and all the things we were taught were so important and so vital to being enlightened people.

We're told that people today are so tolerant, especially compared to the people of times past. We're told that we're so much more enlightened and so much "better" than those antiquated ignoramuses that accepted slavery, wiped out entire cultures, treated each other like animals, and believed in different degrees of human superiority.

We're told then, and yet we sit here, typing away, wanting to scream out at these antiquated ignoramuses who see scapegoats as motives, escapes as influences, and threats to their personal "morals" as threats to everybody.

So what the fuck? When did we go from racist, intolerant, vulgar classists to accepting, caring, enlightened *people.*

We didn't, and this news story (particularly in the wake of countless news stories before it) has made more clear than ever. We haven't moved beyond intolerance and ignorance. All we have done is shift focus. We've come to better (but, and I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, not fully by any stretch of the term) accept things that have been not accepted in the past and displace that intolerance on new things.

All we have managed to do is displace our intolerance. We made Civil Rights strides for African Americans and other minorities, then blacklisted Communists (and "suspected communists"). We allowed Communism, but then hated rock and roll. We started accepting rock and roll, and then hated drugs.

Now we've losing the War on Drugs, so now we're crusading against violent entertainment (specifically video games, but also including movies and TV).

When the FUCK are all the people who were into rock and roll, into drugs, into violent entertainment going to say ENOUGH IS E-FUCKING-NOUGH? When the FUCK are these assholes who get all the power and all the airtime going to get booted right the fuck outta here?

When, and more importantly how, the fuck are we going to get everybody to move the fuck on, stop being ignorant, and solve the REAL FUCKING PROBLEMS IN THIS WORLD.

The absence of this, and I'm going to pull this word out, revolution is making me lose faith. I'm losing patience, I'm losing nerves. I know this has turned into the longest rant on a Kotaku story about this issue, and I know I'm preaching to the choir. I also know my typing this is part of the problem, not part of the solution (or maybe it is, only time will tell). I mean, if I really believed in this and wanted to make change I'd do something, right? Otherwise I'm just a hypocrite, right?

But that's the problem. What can I do? I'm an 18 year old college student studying Computer Science. I'm in the ECA. I've blogged about this issue countless times. So what can I do? That's the issue. These fuckers that are the source of this entire problem are the people who have the power and have the airways to spew their ignorance.

The only thing that I can do is hope that the ECA (and organizations like it) gets influence and manages to get people to change their minds. All I (and most of us, I should mention) can do is hope that the right people get the power and the airways, and help them do so as much as I (we) can.

*The short version of my post is this: No. Hitman was not involved. You don't cut off heads and burn bodies in Hitman. That's what you do to zombies. Sue George Romero.

ShirtGuyDom

@nman: To the rescue!!!

Gladman

Hmm... so apparently, this accused with Hitman he played in which stabbing is used, for this purpose, when he sawed off the head of said man where friend seen him did?

I see...

Xiedo

Agent 47 doesn't cut heads off and burn bodies so, this is a pretty stupid association. Also, unless this guy was paid to kill this dude, it is losing even more value. American law though is pretty fuzzy on things like this, around a decade ago someone used the contents of the book "Hitman" to kill someone, and the publisher was tried in criminal court and they pleaded, was a huge blow to freedom of the press. This is the prescident setting case that all these idiots who try and blame other things for their actions are going off of, well... one of the main ones related to blaming gaming.

Bon5ai

@Snaphaunce: The focus in that story was the child... the focus in this story is the idiot pictured above.

It's not too terribly surprising really, it's just how it's is "framed".

But you do make a valid point. You can sorta control the kind of responses you're likely to get in a story by the angle you take.

Personally... both perpetrators make me sick. One can't really honestly say one is much better than the other, but when you're looking at a picture of a 2 year old girl who was beaten to death vs some dipshit trying to blame society for his crimes, it does tend to focus your attentions with different emotions.

dv8godd

This kid is creepy. His picture is just... eerie...

Krytha

catapult37

@exkon: At least it might make the roadways safer.

I've been waiting to unleash this for these situations. Behold, the ultimate Facepalm!!!
[i75.photobucket.com]

KM91

People will do anything to justify or blame their actions. It happens at some point with every form of medium, be it music, movies, television, etc.

Dude has those crazy eyes. Psychopath should get the electic chair for this.

mitch079

This just in: Fox News will give you a credit card with no limit for a week to do as you wish before you are required to kill a person in a grisly fashion and blame it on video games.

Or so it would seem.

Edge of Blade

Ban heads and we won't have this problem!

TRAMS_AM

@Krytha: I agree. I would love to know if there were any kind of "warning" incidences before this. It's just very odd for someone to just pop and want to do something to that degree. It's just something that seems unfathomable.

DeRangedKaos

i dont remember being able to behead people in hitman, though it would be AWESOME

TinyLightning

What I think this really comes down to is...This kid sucked at Hitman.

If all his kills were done by bum rushing his victim and stabbing a handful of times then cutting someone's head off then he did it wrong.

Supposed to use the fiber wire or syringe full of death.

Pfft n00b

RagingTowers

Videogames taught me that the best way to take someone out was by jumping on their head. Sadly the best way to remove a head doesn't exist yet... curse the fact that no one has managed to create a proper saw-blade shooting gun. But honestly, kid's due for some fun times in jail. I feel bad for the victim's family.

Anemone

pi decimals? no.
human brain capacity? no.
the universe? no.

Only human stupidity is truly infinite.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@cash:
jesus, I mean incomprehensible. that's it, im going to bed.

cash

@Vidril: as soon as developers discover a way to make vigeogames immune to idiots, and the media. through retina scan and fingerprint identification, each console would know if or not to power up depending on user. -sigh-

a man can only dream.

zanzibarlegend

@DeRangedKaos: The story mentions that the prosecution has information that describes the guy as bent on the act of committing murder (which is pretty broad), and I haven't seen what that entails other than the testimonies from his friends (hahaha, but then again, the personalities associated with this kind of behaviour does not engender deep friendships in the first place) - but I think that they would have more points as to what they would consider warning signs outside of his talk of pre-meditation and so on. I dunno, I'll see what other information is floating around.

Krytha

@MisterSleep: Agreed. Any kid messed up enough to do what this kid did based on a video game would have found plenty of inspiration in any R rated movie, watching a CSI type TV show or from the nightly news.

Still, very sad for the victim and frankly I feel bad for the kid too. Something must have gone horribly wrong in his life for him to do what he did.

rawg

The actions of hitting a button to 'saw' a 'head' off and acutally sawing a head off are so far apart from each other it's almost uncompromisable. The fact the two things are being tied up in the same neat little package together just makes me think 'not again'....

cash

The game "Hitman" doesn't involve any beheading as far as I know.

This was just the work of a psychopath.

g8or8de

I hope those kids are locked away forever and drop the soap many times.

darkstar5555

...the kid has scary eyes.

Highlander Wolf

what is wrong with people! even if they are deciding to blame another video game for this; the kid needs to own up to being a complete psychopath.

ugh, its absolutly disgusting.

chaos_isnt_here

This is crazy. If you're able to behead a human being. Then something is wrong with you to begin with.

Orionsaint

What the... doesn't he know that it's wrong to kill people?!

And to blame it on Hitman? I would blame Rob Zombie movies. Now that's senseless violence.

ChiChi_BBQ

stabbing him multiple times in the back before sawing off his head and burning his body.

Seriously. What the fuck?

KagaSakai

he needs the death penalty.. he doesnt deserve to live another day.

RPGCrazied

This guy is a monster. Hope he gets the noose.

NoahSteam

Is that news quote seriously verbatim? "Hit him from their backside where they were not aware they were being killed"?!

FUCK!

I mean, that sentence basically implies that kid came out of the other guy's ass and chopped his head off after WATCHING a video game. Wow. Just... wow.

PlayerX

I don't know...he looks like a mushroom. Maybe they mistaken him playing mario bothers for hitman. Oh well...he's screwed.

nxp3

No, killing someone from behind is easy, and cowardly. Not video-game like.

RaepGoblin

It is terrible that no one wants to take the blame for their actions anymore. This is a person with a brain, it may be screwed up, but he has a brain. Everybody makes their own decisions. The video game did not make him do those things. It was not there talking to him and saying it would kill him if he didn't commit these vicious acts.

It seems that nowadays it is either video games, bad parenting, a soda, or something that drove a person to murder someone else. It is never that person's fault. Why doesn't the news stop looking for a scapegoat and tell it like it really is, "A deranged and troubled person who consciously committed these acts."

kylo4

And in other news, Michael Vick's defense lawyers have uncovered footage of a young Michael Vick playing Pokemon. The game, played by millions of children around the world, has you capture animals and pit them against each other in fights.

"Pitbull, I choose you!"

Pitbull BITES. It's super effective!

PerswAsian

Can you please put the next one through a woodchipper? I wanna see the lawyers rant about Fargo. I think that would be hilarious.

sephycloneno15

At least he didn't kiss a dude.

MartinX

I see the defense's point. I totally remember that time I snuck into the nearby rehab center (or whatever that one level in Blood Money was... it's been awhile) and killed one guy by poisoning his hidden booze. And then killed another guy by choking him with a barbell. And this other time when I was just walking through a neighborhood and decided to sedate this jogger and drop him in the sewer. Man, those were good times.

Oh, wait. That was all IN A VIDEOGAME! It was just a videogame, albeit a fun game that let you complete it in numerous creative ways. As I said with the shooting not too long ago, any reasonably sane person isn't gonna chop someone to fucking pieces just because a game did it. Could we stop assigning blame everytime something happens and just learn to make these idiots take responsibility for their actions finally?

NinjaMarion

@Acunia: Yup. I'm pretty sure 47 never needs to kill the same guy more than once. That's the line between business and crazy right there.

Brackynews

How many of these stories must I hear? Do Juries and Judges really fall for this kind of thing? This is how I'm guessing it went down...

I'm crazy, I'm going to kill this guy.

Oh crap, now what? I don't want to go to jail.

I know how to get out of this, Video Games made me do it!!!

It's bad enough a man had to die because this punk felt like it. Now he's dragging the Industry I love through the mud, so that he can look like a fucking victim. When will people learn that taking someone's life doesn't make you powerful? Needing to take someone's life to feel powerful, only shows how weak you really are.

My heart goes out to Daniel Sorenson's loved ones.

Insidious-Dan

..I really wish there was a delete button right now.

Ciremu

Phew, only a beheading. I thought there would be two gay people kissing.

Ciremu

@Mike Fahey: "If he wore a snappy suit and tie and shaved his head bald before committing the crime, then maybe - just maybe this would have a chance in hell of working. As it stands I suspect the defense attorneys got Hitman and Manhunt mixed up and were forced to run with it. Ridiculous."

Clearly you could have found something a little bit more sensitive as a closing paragraph. While I certainly understand what you're trying to say and certainly had the same thoughts in even stronger language - it doesn't need to be said. That kid killed one guy and is now charged with first degree murder. Not something to be cynical about.

amadeus3000

Won't someone please think of the children?!

Vodun

Hey! I tipped this! :D

HedinnWeis

This crime doesn't seem to relate to Hitman in any way shape or form, other than the fact that someone was murdered. The kid obviously has some problems if he was "fixated on committing a crime."

Also, he reportedly had an accomplice, and Hitman has no fucking co-op mode that I know of.

Samnub

Didn't people use to blame television for everything? Ah the good ol' days...

You know, 20 years from now lawyers are going to look back on cases today where videogames are blamed for everything under the sun, and laugh. They'll laugh at how ridiculous they were, how unfounded, how biased. Then they'll wish they lived in today's world for that exact reason. 20 years from now the low standards of morality in videogames may sink into oblivion, (in the sense that by then the M rating may not be paid any attention at all) and videogames will become so entwined with our culture that they really can be blamed for violence just from the law of averages. In a future where everyone plays games, there'll certainly be people twisted enough to commit crimes based on them just like there are twisted people today who base their crimes on other media.

You know, this just occurred to me, but wouldn't it be a lot easier for the ESRB to rate games if they commissioned employees out to game development studios as observers so that they really can judge the content of a game in it's entirety?

The Maginomicon

I find that I'm not aware that I'm being killed all the time. Guess it's just lucky for me that I'm _not_ being killed all the time.

I mean, seriously, what trained monkey wrote that speech for him to read? Someone died a brutal and grisly death, and the person CNN gets sounds like he's from the Reno Sheriff's Department? WTF?

Purple Dave

I wonder where this kid learnt that the neck was a vital point of the body.

Antiflow

Wait...
Beheaded... Body burned...
Doesn't this actually sound more like Jeff Lindsey's Dexter in the Dark than any video game?

Glahardt

Did they ever remember that hitman is also a movie.... Why didn't they justgo with the mentally deranged plead..OH WAIT HE ALREADY IS!

Scott-Survive

Hit them in the backside? Does backside mean something different in the States?

phicaluk

Just so you guys know, Dan Sorenson was a registered sex offender.

[pysih.com]

I doesn't excuse what they did. But its no great loss IMHO.

finelicker

@finelicker:
Did you bother to read the entire article:

Now you might say, "Hey, he was a registered sex offender! String him up!" but Sorenson really didn't do much to get on that registry, unless you count having a 14-year-old girlfriend when you're 17 as a major crime.

And nobody is deserving of being stabbed to death and decapitated, regardless.

Zeliard

Soldrak

I find the quote silly, if the defense focus shifted to videogames in the same tone as the quote.. it would be utter bullshit. Cause I swear thats how I was taught Moses killed the Egyptian guy beating the Hebrew guy by smacking him from behind. He didn't live long enough for the absurdity of the manhunt debacle ladies and gentlemen.. he was lucky.

Plsk1n

@Soldrak: No shit here happens. Its just you folks dont hear about it becuase its not related to the US.

Trust me shit goes on here, and in other parts of Asia.

Witzbold

@exkon: "God damn it is there no accountability anymore?

So it's no longer a person's fault for committing a crime, there's something else to blame?"

There hasn't been personal accountability for at least two decades, mate. It's either bad childhood, genes, movies, rock music and now video games. It just wouldn't be politically correct to suggest that some people are just nutjobs.

inphanta

lol why does every attorney defending a teen crime blames the crime on video games? omg its just getting old and i think judges are seeing that too.

FelicioLostHorizonPT

Wow! I think this is the most gruesome one yet... wtf!

MetaKz

@Zeliard:
My bad.

finelicker

I think the guy was already mentaly disturb before even playing hitman its strange how people blam games for killing people, I dont go round with a fucking AK-47 around my area and kill people and blam it on GTA. I played loads of f**ked up games and ive had no sytoms of going round stabbing people

Capt_Birdseye

"If he wore a snappy suit and tie and shaved his head bald before committing the crime, then maybe - just maybe this would have a chance in hell of working"

HAHHAHA too true

videogames will always get blamed for random violence because lawyers are just getting lazy, no longer are you responsible for your own crimes..

and to the person who said manhunt andd hitman were similar... no they aren't.

daklog

what a fag

Crrusher

yeah!! now some other person doesn't have to take the blame for what they did!!! Thanks dumbass's of the world!!

Shit i'm going to start eating people and say that Pacman made me do it.

_Ted_

This comment is so far buried it probably won't be read, but what an interesting case this has turned out to be. I'm surprised the trial has been going on this long. I used to know JP - he was in my 2nd and 3rd hour Robotics class this year up until he was arrested . Scary shit, this case is. You'd think with all the testimony this would be an open and shut case...

-nesdude

nesdude

yeah, and the game is based on real human activity, IDIOTS...

I hope they never blame the Iraq War on Advance Wars...

VakeroRokero

@Iceking5:
Oo It's that true? omy

zerojad

@Zeliard: Exactly. The sex offender registry is practically a joke. You've got people on the same list and under the same no being near schools-type restrictions and actual convicted pedophiles just because they got caught taking a piss in the woods or something (And what guy hasn't EVER had to pee outside?). The guy could just as easily have been on the list for peeing in his own backyard and someone seeing, but because he's on the sex offender registry, he [sarcasm]obviously deserved to be beheaded and burned.[/sarcasm]

People hear sex offender and it's instantly "Oh my god! Keep away! You're going to rape my babies! Burn, you pedophile!" and it's actually often "Uhh...I took a piss in my backyard." or "I was 16 and my girlfriend was 15."

NinjaMarion

@exkon:

Responsibility is too much work for people

Shoot2thrill

"After the prosecution spent the better part of yesterday describing a young man fixated on committing a crime,"

These people dream on killing a person fron childrens, and finnaly commit the crime. Made absolute no sense because we are normal people, but these guys need to "taste" how is killing.
This is not realted to videogames, or books, or nothing... is more a problem of how we, the humans, are build.

Tei

It's quite sad that the kid blamed it on the videogame. They made a Hitman movie too you know?

duhforce

Well, Ive murdered several people and I must say that without Hitman and Manhunt I would have had no idea that if I did'nt want someone to see me when trying to murder them with a shovel, that I should approach them from "behind", bear with me. This concept, as ridiculous as it sounds, actually works! Not only that, but did you know that the "head" of a person is a vital part and if damaged could result in death, fascinating stuff and I never would have figured it out on my own if was not for games like Hitman and Manhunt! Im qiute thirsty now, the bleach bottle says "Dont drink", they call it a warning, but I call it a challenge. glug, glug, glug.

Sniper_Zegai

I live right near this place, and find it somewhat silly that once again, video games are being taken into the courtroom. They should know better.

GM08

I'm not sure if this kid is speaking up for himself anymore.
You have to keep in mind that it was his defense that said, "the real reason behind the teen's murderous drive. Hitman." His defense is only trying to get him out of this mess because he's being paid to do so, it's their job. And what is the better way to do it than to find a scapegoat.

It's not my fault that he died, it's the knife. Damn you knives to be sharp.
It's not my fault that I failed the exam, it's the pencil. The pencil told me to mark "B".
It's not me that made the 3-pt shot. Mr. Basketball wanted to home.

LaserProof

I said it once and I'll say it again. White people be crazy!!!

ShadowSkill

this is a sad world right now.

Belldandy-fan

Being wrong in the head makes you kill people, not video games.

Zoe256

Honestly, isn't it common sense to sneak up behind someone for a clean and unsuspected attack?

Maybe it's all those ninja cartoons....lol

keiichimorisato