Tuesday, May. 19, 2009

Regrets, He's Had a Few

In 1995, a Virginia prison inmate named Robert Lee Brock sued ... himself. "For violating my religious beliefs, I want to pay myself $5 million, but I ask the state to pay it since I can't work," Brock wrote in a handwritten seven-page lawsuit.

Brock's claim argued that when he "partook of alcoholic beverages" in 1993, he breached his own religious and civil rights by getting himself drunk enough to break the law. "When I get out I'd pay it back," Brock promised. His case didn't move Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, who dismissed the lawsuit even while she praised Brock's "innovative approach to civil-rights litigation." Seriously, Judge — don't encourage him.