A man who brutally murdered two police officers and a police dispatcher in 2003 will appear in court later today to appeal his conviction.
Devin Moore currently sits on death row in Alabama. His attorneys will argue before the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals that chilhood abuse and video games led him to commit the rampage killing inside the Fayette police station.
Moore, then 18, was being processed for driving a stolen car when he grabbed the sidearm of Fayette Officer Arnold Strickland and used it to kill Strickland, Corporal James Crump and Dispatcher Ace Mealer.
As reported by the Tuscaloosa News:
Moore, now 22, claimed the video game “Grand Theft Auto” and childhood abuse influenced his decision-making. His theory was rejected and the video game defense was disallowed during trial…
At the time he was arrested, Moore is reported to have told police, “Life is a video game. Everybody has to die sometime.”
Moore’s attorney, James Standridge… argued that when Moore was in a “dissociative state” he automatically reverted to scripted behavior influenced by his repetitive video game exposure and childhood abuse.
The triple murders form the basis of Strickland vs. Sony, a wrongful death suit brought against several video game companies by Miami attorney Jack Thompson.
GamePolitics has extensive coverage of Moore’s 2005 criminal trial in our archives.
