SLAYER 'MURDER' CASE THROWN OUT
A Californian court rules that listening to the band did not lead three teenage schoolboys to kill...
A lawsuit accusing thrash metallers SLAYER of marketing "adult-orientated" tracks to minors, leading three teenage schoolboys to murder, has been thrown out of a Californian court.
The case has been rumbling through US courts under various suits since 1996 when an initial action was filed by the parents of 15-year-old Elyse Pahler, murdered the year earlier by three classmates who claimed listening to Slayer led them to commit their crime. In January, a judge had ordered the family lawyers to amend their complaint dismissing an attempt to find Slayer directly responsible for influencing the boys.
In San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Monday (October 29), Judge E. Jeffrey Burke ruled that he didn't find Slayer's music obscene, indecent or directly harmful to minors, so the marketing of such music to minors was legal. Despite this week's finding, lawyers for the family say they are going to keep the case active some while yet and will seek an appeal, MTV reports.
The body of Pahler was found close to her home near San Luis Obispo in March 1996. She had been lured to her death there eight months earlier by Jacob Delashmutt, Joseph Fiorella and Royce Casey. They choked and stabbed her to death, returning later to have sex with her corpse.
The three were avid Slayer fans who believed they needed to commit a "sacrifice to the devil" in order to give their then band Hatred, the "craziness" to "go professional".
The three pleaded guilty, and are currently serving 25 years to life.
The case has been rumbling through US courts under various suits since 1996 when an initial action was filed by the parents of 15-year-old Elyse Pahler, murdered the year earlier by three classmates who claimed listening to Slayer led them to commit their crime. In January, a judge had ordered the family lawyers to amend their complaint dismissing an attempt to find Slayer directly responsible for influencing the boys.
In San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Monday (October 29), Judge E. Jeffrey Burke ruled that he didn't find Slayer's music obscene, indecent or directly harmful to minors, so the marketing of such music to minors was legal. Despite this week's finding, lawyers for the family say they are going to keep the case active some while yet and will seek an appeal, MTV reports.
The body of Pahler was found close to her home near San Luis Obispo in March 1996. She had been lured to her death there eight months earlier by Jacob Delashmutt, Joseph Fiorella and Royce Casey. They choked and stabbed her to death, returning later to have sex with her corpse.
The three were avid Slayer fans who believed they needed to commit a "sacrifice to the devil" in order to give their then band Hatred, the "craziness" to "go professional".
The three pleaded guilty, and are currently serving 25 years to life.
Slayer consider quitting
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