Lawyer attempts to blame his client's crime on gaming, geekery

6:59 PM on 02.28.2008   |   Colette Bennett

36 comments

I fully understand that anti-videogame enthusiasts (better known as rampant douche bags) are always hot to point out that videogames are to blame for any given crime, but now they're really reaching. Randy Gladden, an attorney defending the case of Mr. Andrew Reid Lackey, claims that his client's crime was spurred by the fact that he played videogames. Here's a direct snippet from the newspaper report:

Actions that led to a deadly confrontation between a defendant and an 80-year-old widower resembled a video game to the accused…

[Attorney] Gladden described Lackey (seen above) as a computer geek who had immersed himself in video games and lived in “a different world than you and I.”

Mr. Lackey killed an 80 year old man on Oct 31st, 2005. The victim, Charlie Newman, made a 911 call in which Lackey is clearly overheard saying "Where's the vault?" to the old man seven times throughout the course of the call. Newman's grandson had told Lackey that his grandfather kept a vault of money under the stairs, but no such thing was ever found. Videogames were never mentioned in the crime itself or the news report that followed.

These opinions are every person's right to have, even if they make you look even nuttier than the person you're trying to defend, but at least work with facts here, people. The least you can do is provide some sort of substantial evidence to base your claim on. Also, the deduction made suggests that all geeks are hunkering in their rooms waiting to murder the elderly, which only serves to make one assume Mr. Gladden has the IQ of a fruit salad.

You know, if we're going to go to war with people who judge us, you'd think they could send smart people. We're geeks for a reason, after all -- we've had our faces buried in books since grammar school. Being attacked poorly is only going to result in humiliation for these people if we are left to serve them up the facts.

[Via Gamepolitics]