James v. Meow Media

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James v. Meow Media was a lawsuit filed in 1999 by families of three girls killed by Michael Carneal. The lawsuit claimed that several entertainment companies should be held responsible for the girls' deaths in the 1997 Heath High School shooting in Paducah, Kentucky. Jack Thompson, a Miami lawyer and anti-videogame activist, filed the $33 million federal products liability class action lawsuit. Michael Carneal shot at a group of fellow students as they were leaving a before-school prayer group in the school's lobby, killing 3 and wounding 5. Carneal was sentenced to life in prison ^[1]. Defendants included Time Warner Inc., Polygram Film Entertainment Distribution Inc., Palm Pictures, Island Pictures, New Line Cinema, Atari Corp., Nintendo of America, Sega of America Inc., and Sony Computer Entertainment.

In 2000, the judge dismissed the suit, citing Kentucky tort law, absolving the companies of responsibility for Carneal's actions ^[2]. In 2002, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, and in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, refusing to review the case because it was not dismissed on 1st Amendment grounds ^[3].

Dr. Dewey Cornell, a psychiatrist who interviewed Carneal, rebuked the idea that Carneal had never fired a gun before, as Thompson claimed, as Carneal admitted to having stolen and practiced with a .22 caliber pistol, and had previously practiced with other handguns. Carneal eventually stole 5 rifles from a friends' father's gun cabinet while the family was away at a Thanksgiving dinner, as well as stealing 2 shotguns from his own father^[4].