Causing a Natural Disaster to Party: The Case of James Scott | Overlooked

In 1993, the Midwestern United States was submerged by extreme rainfall and historic flooding that resulted in tens of deaths, billions of dollars in damages, and a breach of levees up and down the Mississippi River. In the small river town of Quincy, Illinois, 24-year-old James Scott was convicted under an obscure 1979 Missouri law for intentionally "causing a catastrophe". His alleged crime was causing the West Quincy levee to fail and his alleged motive was to strand his wife on the other side of the river so he could be free to party and go fishing with his friends. Though no one died in this levee breach, James is the first and only person in Missouri history convicted under this law and is currently serving a life sentence. In this episode of Overlooked, Adam Pitluk, journalist and author of Damned to Eternity, returns to Quincy, IL to further investigate how James may have been scapegoated by local community and law enforcement officials whose tunnel vision firmly placed the blame on James, a crime which he maintains to this day that he didn't do. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw613M86o5o4S3BXgi3bCiIVuopQxIMgV Click here to subscribe to VICE: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE About VICE: The Definitive Guide To Enlightening Information. From every corner of the planet, our immersive, caustic, ground-breaking and often bizarre stories have changed the way people think about culture, crime, art, parties, fashion, protest, the internet and other subjects that don't even have names yet. Browse the growing library and discover corners of the world you never knew existed. Welcome to VICE. Connect with VICE: Check out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/VICE-Videos Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo Click here to get the best of VICE daily: http://bit.ly/1SquZ6v Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice Follow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vice Follow us on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vice Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vice?lang=en The VICE YouTube Network: VICE: https://www.youtube.com/VICE MUNCHIES: https://www.youtube.com/MUNCHIES VICE News: https://www.youtube.com/VICENews VICELAND: https://www.youtube.com/VICELANDTV Vice Life: https://www.youtube.com/Broadly Noisey: https://www.youtube.com/Noisey Motherboard: https://www.youtube.com/MotherboardTV VICE Sports: https://www.youtube.com/NOC i-D: http://www.youtube.com/iDmagazine Waypoint: https://www.youtube.com/WaypointVICE