The Cannibal Fantasist's Conviction Overturned

Remember Gilberto Valle, the New York policeman whose hobby was chatting with other men online about killing and eating his wife? He was convicted in state court of conspiracy to kidnap and other charges, which could have gotten him life in prison. But that conviction has been overturned by a Federal judge:

“The evidentiary record is such that it is more likely than not the case that all of Valle’s Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play,” Judge Gardephe said in a 118-page opinion issued late Monday night.

I think the Federal judge has this one right; I doubt Valle was ever going to eat his wife. But then maybe people say that about all crazy killers.

This is an important precedent for me personally, since now I am less likely to be prosecuted for my extensive file of stories and game scenarios featuring murder, war, rape, assassination, enslavement, genocide, plague, black magic, curses that redound through the generations, and apocalyptic entries of dark gods into the human universe.