State of Georgia vs. Denver Fenton Allen is an animatic of Rick and Morty, featuring versions of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, playing the roles of Denver Allen and Judge Durham in a word-for-word reenactment of the court case of the same name. It was released on Adult Swim's YouTube account on August 4th, 2016.
Background[]
Denver Fenton Allen was in jail for making terroristic threats. While in jail, he had been accused of beating a fellow inmate Stephen Nalley to death. On June 17th, 2016, a pretrial hearing was held by Judge Bryant Durham. This hearing was to determine if Denver could have new counsel named to represent him at his upcoming murder trial. When Durham refused to name new counsel, Denver unleashed a stream of profanities on him and threatened to kill his whole family. Durham verbally fought back, provoking him with other insults, until Durham eventually adjourned the hearing.
The entire transcript of the court case was released to the public. Since then, there have been many people who make reenactment videos of the court case, going word for word, based off of the transcript. In July a Rick and Morty version of the video representation of the court case was shown at Comic-Con, and was later released on Adult Swim's YouTube account. Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith took on the roles of Denver Fenton Allen and Judge Bryant Durham, respectively. Justin Roiland reprised his role as Rick and Morty, while the Deputy Sheriff, Mr. Wyatt, and the Court Reporter were respectively voiced by Sarah Carbiener, James Atkinson (who edited the video), and Tom Kauffman.
After the hearing Judge Durham recused himself from the case. He was later admonished for getting into a verbal sparring match with Allen. Durham apologized for his behavior. Allen later tried to draw another judge into a verbal sparring match, but instead of taking the bait the judge simply had him removed from the courtroom. After a competency evaluation, Allen pled guilty to the murder in late 2017 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Upon pronouncement of the sentence Allen threatened the lives of several people present in the court room. He is currently in Floyd County Prison in Rome, Georgia, USA.
Video[]
Judge Morty: State of Georgia vs. Rick Allen[]
Judge Morty- State of Georgia Vs. Rick Allen
On October 6th, 2016, Canadian animator Tiara Why released an animated version of the animatic to her YouTube account, titled Judge Morty: State of Georgia vs. Rick Allen. The video established the names of the characters of Rick and Morty as being "Rick Allen" and "Judge Morty Durnham Jr.". The video's background featured various characters from Rick and Morty and Futurama. Why stated that she developed the video (funded with Patreon) over the course of two months, using Toonboom Harmony 14 Premium software.
The video is dedicated to the "loving memory of Bird person and Harambe".
Rick & Morty- State of Georgia Vs. Denver Fenton Allen (Uncensored Edit)
In addition to animating the transcript, Why directed and animated an opening to the video parodying Judge Judy, as well as a post-credits scene to the video, featuring the voices of Blake Swift as Rick and Morty and Amber May as Jessica. The scene follows Morty as he flies home after the trial at night in his space cruiser, bypassing the planet's (partially broken) moon. He makes a holographic phone call to his wife, Jessica "Honey Bunny" Durnham. The two discuss the possibility of one of the criminals convicted by Morty ever escaping, while Jessica expresses her hope that Morty will switch to a safer career for the sake of their growing family, citing the open offer to work at her father's carpet store. As Morty expresses his conviction in the police never letting an inmate escape, Rick bursts from behind Morty's seat and attempts to strangle him with his handcuffs' chain. As Jessica makes a separate call to the police, Morty crashes his cruiser below to an ambiguous fate. A self-proclaimed "knock-off" of a vanity card is then shown as the video ends.
2017-
A version of the video lacking the post-credits scene and removing the video's censor beeps was released on the YouTube channel of <desired>, edited from Tiara Why's video and an uncensored version of the original animatic by OldSkooRebel.
Pocket Mortys[]
Judge Morty is one of the collectible Mortys in Pocket Mortys.
References[]
- http://legal.blog.ajc.com/2016/06/23/georgia-judge-loses-it-over-vulgar-courtroom-exchange/
- http://twistedsifter.com/2016/08/rick-and-morty-re-enact-court-transcript-verbatim/
- http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judge_is_admonished_for_highly_inappropriate_exchange_with_defendant
- https://nypost.com/2017/12/12/man-whose-incredibly-crude-exchange-with-judge-went-viral-gets-life/