Update on the "Internet Intoxification" Trial
Click here to see details of the crime in our first article on this case.
On Friday (April 28, 2000) Florida high school student Michael Ian Campbell was sentenced to four months in prison for threatening a Columbine student over the internet. Campbell reportedly collapsed as the sentence was read. In addition to his prison time, Campbell also will have to serve three years of probation time (during which he cannot use the Internet), and accept mental health treatment.
Campbell's family and friends have repeatedly held him up as a good kid who made a stupid mistake. I hate to be a dissenter (not really), but I don't think I could feel sorry for this kid if he was Julia Robert's mom in "Terms of Endearment." He is not a good kid who made a stupid mistake. He is either (a) a bad kid who was having fun on the Internet, or (b) a complete moron. Anyone have a coin?
The reason I was watching this case closely was because I wanted to see how the whole "Internet intoxification" defense turned out. Originally, Campbell's lawyer, Ellis Rubin, had planned to argue that his client was a victim of "Internet intoxification," an affliction that supposedly diminishes a person's ability to seperate the online world from the real world due to spending too much time on the 'net.
If Rubin had actually fooled a jury with this nonsense (he didn't get a chance to present it, Campbell pleaded guilty), that would be great news for me personally. I work online for about eight hours each day, and usually spend a few more hours online when I get home. I could rob a bank and get away with it. Maybe I'd have to prove that I thought it was an online bank though... well, it's a moot point anyway.
Chris