Suit over video game allowed
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, March 29, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Rejecting an appeal by video game makers and sellers, the Alabama Supreme Court has kept alive a $600 million lawsuit blaming “Grand Theft Auto” for the murders of the three-person night shift at a rural police department.
A lawyer for the victims’ families said the decision sets the stage for what could be the nation’s first trial over killings blamed on video games, perhaps in January.
“No one has ever before survived a motion to dismiss, so we’re excited,” said attorney Jack Thompson.
The lawsuit was filed by relatives of two police officers and a radio dispatcher slain in 2003.
Without comment, the justices Friday turned aside the industry’s argument that the lawsuit should be thrown out because the companies have a First Amendment right to sell the games.
The Alabama Supreme Court, however, has agreed to hear manufacturers’ claims that Alabama courts lack the power to hear the case.
A representative of game manufacturer Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Devin Moore was being booked on suspicion of car theft in 2003 at the Fayette Police Department when he grabbed an officer’s gun and started shooting. Killed were officers Arnold Strickland, 55, and James Crump, 40, and dispatcher Leslie “Ace” Mealer, 38.
Moore, 20, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death last year.
Defense attorneys blamed Moore’s actions in part on the hours he spent playing video games from the “Grand Theft Auto” game series, in which players shoot police officers and steal cars.
The judge in the murder case barred the jurors from hearing testimony linking the shootings to the game, although they were told that Moore told police, “Life is a video game; everybody has to die sometime.”
The victims’ families sued Take-Two Interactive and subsidiary Rockstar Games Inc.; Sony Corp., which manufactures PlayStation systems; and two stores where Moore allegedly bought games, Wal-Mart and Gamestop.
The companies deny any link between the game and the slayings.
