Girl who stabbed her classmate 19 times in a Slender Man attack is appealing her 40-year sentence because 'she was young and believed the fictional character ordered her to kill'
- Morgan Geyser, 17, is appealing her case after she pleaded guilty to stabbing her classmate 19 times to please Slender Man
- Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier were committed to mental health institutions for stabbing Payton Leutner in Wisconsin in 2014
- Payton managed to crawl out of the wooded park and survived
- Geyser's appeal argues she shouldn't have been prosecuted as an adult because she believed Slender Man would kill her family if she didn't stab her classmate
One of two Wisconsin girls who pleaded guilty to stabbing a classmate 19 times and leaving her for dead to please a fictional horror character called Slender Man is appealing her case.
An attorney for Morgan Geyser, now 17, recently filed a court brief arguing that Geyser shouldn't have been prosecuted as an adult because the girl believed Slender Man would kill her family if she didn't stab her sixth-grade classmate.
Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier were committed to mental health institutions for stabbing Payton Leutner at a Waukesha park in 2014.
Payton managed to crawl out of the wooded park and survived.
An attorney for Morgan Geyser (above in 2017), one of two Wisconsin girls who pleaded guilty to stabbing a classmate 19 times to please Slender Man, has filed an appeal against her sentence
The girls were 12 years old at the time.
Geyser's appeal argues that, given her young age, she couldn't understand the rights she gave up when she agreed to speak to detectives while in custody.
The girl confessed on video to murdering her classmate.
Following her arrest, Geyser was diagnosed as schizophrenic. She was found not guilty of attempted murder by way of insanity in 2016.
During her hearing last year, Geyser wept and apologized to the victim and her family.
Payton Leutner (above) was stabbed 19 times at a Waukesha park in 2014 but managed to crawl out of the wooded area and survived
Morgan Geyser (right) and co-defendant Anissa Weier (left) were both committed to mental health institutions for stabbing Payton
Calling Payton 'Ella', as she did during her confession, she wailed: 'I just want let Ella and her family know, I am sorry.
'I never meant for this to happen. I hope that she is doing well.'
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Payton's mother Stacie submitted a victim impact statement to the judge during the trials of the two girls, saying her daughter slept with scissors for 'months' after the attack because she was so haunted.
The victim still has scars from where she was knifed.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was ordered to spend 40 years in the institution.
WHO IS SLENDER MAN? THE ONLINE MYTH TEENS BELIEVED BEFORE STABBING THEIR FRIEND
The mythical creature is often depicted as an unnaturally tall, thin figure with a blank, featureless face, wearing a black suit
The Slender Man is a fictional character that originated in an online art contest in 2009, before becoming a popular meme.
It is what drove Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser to stab their friend Payton Leutner 19 times in May 2014 in Wisconsin.
The girls feared their own families would die if they did not follow its orders.
The mythical creature is often depicted as an unnaturally tall, thin figure with a blank, featureless face, wearing a black suit.
The character is said to have creepily long, tentacle-like arms, which can be extended to capture prey.
It is described as stalking, abducting and traumatizing children, and - depending on variations of the urban legend - can cause memory loss, insomnia and paranoia.
It is also said to be able to create distortions in photographs and teleport.
The character is understood to have originated in a Photoshop contest on the forums of comedy website Something Awful in 2009.
It then went viral, with numerous works of fan art and short scary stories - known as 'creepypasta' - published online.
The character has developed its own life online, with two feature-length films funded in part by Kickstarter appearing in 2012, along with many amateur video games and pop-culture references.
