Mortal Kombat Could Get You the Electric Chair

It turns out that playing Mortal Kombat is such a sure sign of mental health that it could get you a death sentence. That's what nearly put a man from Akron, Ohio, USA, in the ground.

Clifton White III, who was convicted of three killings and sentenced to death, was sent back to the Summit County Common Pleas Court for re-sentencing without the option of the death penalty by the Ohio Supreme Court due to being mentally retarded. The reason, apparently, is that objective testimonies from two psychologists were ignored in favour of anecdotal evidence from a witness who said that White could drive, use a microwave and... play Mortal Kombat.

Nice to see that playing a violent game has stood as testament to someone's mental well-being rather than sickness of mind, for once, eh? Sure, it nearly got a man killed, but at least the rest of us gamers can feel safe in the knowledge that our ability to respond to moving images and press buttons makes us functional enough human beings to get fried...

Justice Robert R. Cupp of the Ohio Supreme Court said that the lower court "may not disregard credible and uncontradicted expert testimony. … Doing so takes an arbitrary, unreasonable attitude to the evidence before the court and results in an abuse of discretion."

SPOnG, for one, is glad to have not killed anybody in Ohio. We've been known to play Chessmaster. We probably wouldn't even get an appeal.

^{Source: The Columbus Dispatch}