Milestones Dec. 11, 2006

OVERTURNED. The conviction of Derek Tice, 36, one of the "Norfolk Four" Navy sailors found guilty of the 1997 rape and murder of a Navy wife; by a judge who ruled that police had violated Tice's Miranda rights in obtaining his confession; in Norfolk, Va. Tice, who is serving a life sentence, and three other sailors claimed they confessed falsely under police coercion. A fifth convicted man--the only one linked to the crime by DNA--says the sailors were not involved. A judge will rule on Dec. 20 on whether Tice should be released.

DIED. Dave Cockrum, 63, comic-book illustrator whose characters revitalized the X-Men in the '70s and helped build the title into a lucrative colossus, spawning toys, video games and a film franchise; of complications from diabetes; in Belton, S.C. Cockrum, who grew up reading Captain Marvel, got his big break inking DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes strip. After moving to Marvel, he created, with writer Len Wein, such X-Men as the weather-manipulating Storm, below, who was played by Halle Berry on the big screen. When asked why he worked in comics rather than another art form, he said, "Where else can you blow up entire galaxies, or hurtle through space on a tiny surfboard, or travel to other dimensions, or meet the most outlandish alien beings, on the minuscule budget we get to work with?"

DIED. Allen Carr, 72, onetime accountant and five-pack-a-day smoker who, in 1983, gave up cigarettes and fashioned himself into a smoking-cessation guru, penning the best seller The Easy Way to Stop Smoking; of lung cancer; near Malaga, Spain. Carr believed smoking was less physically addictive than usually thought and that the main obstacle to quitting was psychological. He later applied his fear-conquering strategies to other concerns, writing books on the easy way to stop worrying and to control alcohol consumption.

DIED. Bernard Rimland, 78, psychologist who pioneered modern autism research and advocacy and founded the Autism Society of America; in El Cajon, Calif. In 1958, Rimland diagnosed autism in his 2-year-old son Mark with the help of a college textbook. The personal discovery led to a professional crusade. "This was war," he later wrote. In 1964, he published Infantile Autism, a landmark book that argued autism had biochemical roots and upended the then conventional wisdom that it was a child's response to "refrigerator mothers" who didn't show adequate affection. An adviser to the makers of Rain Man--his son was a model for Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning 1988 turn as an autistic savant--Rimland also controversially claimed metals like mercury could trigger autism and vitamins could help treat it.

DIED. William Diehl, 81, late-starting novelist who penned popular, mayhem-ridden novels including Sharky's Machine and Primal Fear; in Atlanta. A decorated World War II veteran, he got a job as an obituary writer at the Atlanta Constitution after the war, then became a reporter and freelance photographer. His move into fiction was inspired in part by boredom--he began writing Sharky's Machine, his first novel, at age 50, while serving as a juror. His fast-paced thrillers translated easily to film--Burt Reynolds played the title character in the 1981 adaptation of Sharky's Machine, and Edward Norton earned an Oscar nomination for playing the cunning young murderer of an archbishop in Primal Fear.