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Can Creepiness Cause Conviction?
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The overturning of the conviction of the "Cannibal Cop" raises questions about when something goes from thought to crime, and whether thoughts without action should put you in jail. There's no question that this cop, who wrote scenarios about killing, cooking, and eating women (including his wife), had some weird-ass, scary thoughts. We don't know for sure whether he'd have acted on them or not. But the judge agreed with the defense that the thoughts were "fantasy role-play" and not reality, and so reversed that conviction (although a parallel conviction for illegally using a federal database to make a list of his targets stands). Read through the allegations and see if you're comfortable that this guy was only fantasizing. And imagine being one of his targets. (New York Post)
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