Slender Man case delayed pending Appeals Court

A Wisconsin judge on Monday indefinitely halted the case of two teenage girls accused of stabbing their classmate to please the fictional Internet character Slenderman while lawyers appeal for it to be moved to juvenile court, court records show.

Prosecutors have said that both Morgan and Anissa were obsessed with the fictional character Slender Man, who is often depicted in fan fiction stories online as a horror figure who stalks children. The decision came after months of debate regarding the age and mental status of the girls charged in this case.

Weier’s attorneys had also filed motions to suppress the statements she made the day of the girls’ arrest, on the basis she was not competent to waive her right to remain silent. After learning that the question to try the girls as adults or juveniles had been brought before the Court of Appeals, Bohren postponed the case, which was supposed to go on trial October, 15.

“We realize kids under 16 are not allowed to smoke, legally they are not allowed to have consensual sex, they can’t join the Army, they can’t vote – all because, as a society, we have concluded their brains are not sophisticated to handle those functions”, said Richard Kling, a law professor Chicago Kent College of Law, to the Monitor. If the case remains in adult court, it likely won’t be ready for trial until next year.

The two girls are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the May 2014 attack on Payton Leutner.

The cut off used to be 12 years old, but lawmakers lowered the age for an automatic adult trial in 1995 after a 1991 shooting by an 11-year-old boy. If they were in the juvenile court system, the court would no longer have authority over them after that age.