What is theTwinkie defense?

Answer 1

Claim: During Dan White's murder trial, his defense lawyer successfully argued that White's judgment had been impaired due to his consumption of Twinkies and other junk foods.
Status: False.
Origins: On 27 November 1978, Dan White, a former San Francisco city supervisor who had recently resigned his position, entered San Francisco's city hall by climbing through a basement window and then shot and killed both mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk. After White's subsequent trial for the murders, a new term entered the American lexicon: "Twinkie defense." This phrase came to represent the efforts of criminals to avoid responsibility for their actions by claiming that some external force beyond their control had caused them to act the way they had, and it arose from the successful defense mounted by White's legal team that White's eating of Twinkies and other sugar-laden junk foods had diminished his mental capacity.

"Twinkie defense" is now a widespread and commonly-recognized term. It is also a term based on something that never happened.

Neither White nor his defense team ever claimed that White's consumption of junk food had wrought psychological or physiological changes in White that caused him to act in way inconsistent with his "normal" behavior when he shot George Moscone and Harvey Milk. White's defense was that he had been suffering from a long-standing and untreated depression that diminished his capacity to distinguish right from wrong, and thus he was not capable of the premeditation required to support a charge of first degree murder. Dr. Martin Blinder was called as a witness by the defense to testify that the conversion of the previously health-conscious White to a diet of Twinkies and other junk foods was evidence of his depression.
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On November 27, 1978, in San Francisco, Dan White, who had recently resigned from his city supervisor position, climbed through a basement window in City Hall and walked upstairs to Mayor George Moscone's office. He demanded his job back, and when Moscone refused, White fatally wounded the mayor with four gunshots. White quickly reloaded, walked down the hall to the office of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to hold public office, and killed him with five gunshots.

In White's trial, his defense attorneys stated that he was suffering from "diminished capacity," a defense that was permissible in California at that time. White's lawyers argued that he suffered from depression and was therefore incapable of any premeditation. Psychiatrist Martin Blinder testified that White was addicted to junk food and that too much sugar could have had an effect on the brain and worsened White's depression. Blinder offered the junk food addiction as evidence of the depression, rather than a cause for the crime. This distinction failed to make it into the media accounts of the trial, however.

The defense worked. The jury found White guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to six years. Many residents of San Francisco were outraged and riots broke out in the city.

In 1982, California voters approved a proposition to abolish the "diminished capacity" defense.

Dan White served his time, was paroled in 1985, and took his own life later that year.

Answer 2

In jurisprudence, a "Twinkie defense" is a criminal defendant's claim that some unusual factor entered into the causes or motives of the alleged crime. This biological defense is a so-called "innovative defense", through which defendants argue that they either should not be held criminally liable for actions which broke the law, or that the criminal liability should be mitigated to a lesser offense (e.g., from murder down to voluntary manslaughter), as they were suffering from the effects of allergies, stimulants (such as coffee and nicotine), sugar, and/or vitamins.

Answer 3

many times, I choose Pittsburgh's version of the three - 4. in spite of if, in case you will get the athletes, Baltimore's version of the 4 - 3 is the final. Baltimore grew to become into in fact working a three - 4 protection out of a 4 - 3 scheme, because of the fact they performed 2 NTs interior the middle with Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams, and their left protecting end Peter Boulware grew to become into extremely a glorified outdoors linebacker. yet that's the final element a pair of three - 4. maximum 3 - 4 communities can play out of a 4 - 3, yet few 4 - 3 communities can play out of a three - 4. The 4 - 3 conceal 2 in user-friendly terms works because of the fact few communities have actual TEs which could the two block and make catches down the middle of the sector ... maximum TEs are in simple terms glorified WRs. A 4 - 3 protection might have difficulty struggling with sweeps and outdoors runs (which no one does anymore) because of the fact the reliable protection is interior the field and the CBs and OLBs are oftentimes undersized, and likewise the conceal 2 leaves extensive areas interior the process the sector huge open. That Nineteen 1880s ny Giants offense with Joe Morris working outdoors and Mark Bavaro making performs interior the process the sector might placed up 50 factors a pastime on a conceal 2 protection.

Answer 4

Quasimodo got the circumstances right, but the Twinkie defense came in to diminish his responsibility for killing the mayor and the alderman (harvey milk). The killer said Oh I was out of my mind on the sugar! I can't be blamed for knowingly killing these people! So he was convicted of a lesser offense, like manslaughter, or something.

Answer 5

The mayor of San fransisico and (I believe) an alderman who was admittedly gay were shot and killed in/in front of City Hall by an disgruntled city staff member. His defense at his murder trial was that because of his long hours and work for the city he subsisted on a diet of junk food. Most pointedly Twinkies.
Hence the term.

Answer 6

The first defense is to stay out of the snack food aisle. The second is to lock your refrigerator.

Answer 7

If you are attacked by a Police Officer you throw a Twinkie at him and run, in his confusion of trying to figure out why it not have a hole like a Donut you can usually escape.

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie_defense

It's based on the defendant in this case claiming a "sugar high" made him do it.

It's used to describe lame tactics lawyers will use to exploit the legal system.

Answer 9

that's a code for "everybody show up at the Dunkin' Donuts" !