While the media has occasionally scapegoated adventure gaming(see 'Monterey News Story Ties RPGs to Assault') and small time Savonarolas like Jack Chick and 'Dr.' Thomas Radecki regularly castigate Dungeons & Dragons as dangerous and satanic (see 'Jack Chick Takes on Games Again'), the lawyer for a Detroit man accused of slashing a co-worker to death with a homemade samurai sword may be the first barrister to come up with a 'D&D defense,' claiming his client was a psychotic schizophrenic obsessed with D&D.  'He played Dungeons and Dragons and was obsessive with games of fantasy,' the attorney was quoted as saying.  'He became his fantasy.  He was a ninja doing an honorable thing.'

 

Actually fantasy role-playing is a major element in both the defense and prosecution arguments since prosecutors are attempting to portray the incident as a simple revenge killing perpetrated by James Flemons because his co-workers bullied him largely 'over his obsession with fantasy-based games.'   

 

The exotic details of this crime, which include the apparent fact that Flemons provided his victim 'with a piece of metal in a chivalrous manner as if challenging him to a duel' before skewering him, guarantee that this murder (as well as its perpetrator's links to D&D) will receive plenty of publicity when Court TV covers the trial live on Court TV Extra.

 

Anthony J. Gallela, GAMA's Executive Director, has indicated that GAMA's Industry Watch Committee, headed by Michael Stockpole, will be watching this case to see if they need to step in.