Out - Twinkie Defense/In - Coffee Defense

[chanel]

A Kentucky man accused of strangling his wife is poised to claim excessive caffeine from sodas, energy drinks and diet pills left him so mentally unstable he couldn't have knowingly killed her, his lawyer has notified a court.

Woody Will Smith, 33, is scheduled for trial starting Monday on a murder charge in the May 2009 death of Amanda Hornsby-Smith, 28.

Defense attorney Shannon Sexton filed notice with the Newport court of plans to argue his client ingested so much caffeine in the days leading up to the killing that it rendered him temporarily insane — unable even to form the intent of committing a crime.

A legal strategy invoking caffeine intoxication is unusual but has succeeded at least once before, in a case involving a man cleared in 2009 of charges of running down and injuring two people with a car in Washington state.

Ky. man claims caffeine insanity in wife's death - Yahoo! News

 

[goldcatt]

Now I know how to carry out my evul plot for world domination. The devil in my coffee cup made me do it!

 

[George Costanza]

How do the two of you feel about the defense of insanity? Do you think it is a proper defense, if proven?

 

[uscitizen]

Pertty sad. However I heard a local news guy say the defense had been successful in another case somewhere.

 

[goldcatt]

How do the two of you feel about the defense of insanity? Do you think it is a proper defense, if proven?

Absolutely. I was making fun in my last post.

I posted all this on another thread recently, can't remember exactly where. But the insanity defense is the necessary humane alternative for those who can't be allowed back into society without treatment, but also can't be held accountable for their actions with any real sense of justice as we perceive it. The fine State psychiatric facilities are not exactly the walk a lot of people think it's about, and as an affirmative defense it has to fly past a usually skeptical jury.

Have some crazy defenses been floated? Sure. But see the last part of the above. That's the safeguard against baseless claims succeeding.

 

[Madeline]

How do the two of you feel about the defense of insanity? Do you think it is a proper defense, if proven?

The insanity defense might better protect crazy people if every fuckwhit caught killing did not try and medicalize himself out of trouble. Though personally I'd rather do time in a prison than a forensic mental hospital.

Either way, I predict that a Kentucky jury will laugh this out of court. This guy should take a plea.

 

[chanel]

He should have said the "lack of coffee" made him insane. You should see my husband when we run out. I could be that poor wife one day.

 

[goldcatt]

How do the two of you feel about the defense of insanity? Do you think it is a proper defense, if proven?

The insanity defense might better protect crazy people if every fuckwhit caught killing did not try and medicalize himself out of trouble. Though personally I'd rather do time in a prison than a forensic mental hospital.

Either way, I predict that a Kentucky jury will laugh this out of court. This guy should take a plea.

How likely they are to laugh depends on whether they've gotten their Starbucks order in the deliberation room before they take the vote.