New York Attorney Asks For “Trial By Combat.” Wait, That’s A Real Thing You Can Do?

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Staten Island attorney Richard A. Luthmann has requested “trial by combat” in response to a civil suit brought against him and a client, and it doesn’t sound like the guy is kidding around. Apparently, this practice never got officially abolished in our Constitution, which is probably something that we should get around to, one of these days. Here’s an excerpt from Luthmann’s request:

As such, the undersigned (Luthmann) respectfully requests that the court permit the undersigned to dispatch plaintiffs and their counsel to the Divine Providence of the Maker for Him to exact His divine judgment once the undersigned has released the souls of the plaintiffs and their counsel from their corporeal bodies, personally and or by way of a champion.

Luthmann reiterates that he is willing to die in order to avoid being sued:

One of the inconveniences of this procedure is, that the party who institutes it must be willing, if required, to stake his life in support of his accusation.

As for the accusations that Luthmann is facing, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that a lot of money is involved.

(via Uproxx, image via Hypable)

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Maddy Myers
Maddy Myers, journalist and arts critic, has written for the Boston Phoenix, Paste Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and tons more. She is a host on a videogame podcast called Isometric (relay.fm/isometric), and she plays the keytar in a band called the Robot Knights (robotknights.com).