'Too Much Caffeine': The New Murder Defense?

[Elmore Furth]

A man in Kentucky who is set to stand trial for the murder of his wife, is planning to use the temporary insanity defense, according to the Associated Press. The cause of insanity? Caffeine intoxication from too many soft drinks and energy drinks.

The defendant, Woody Will Smith, was charged with strangling his wife, Amanda Hornsby-Smith, with an extension cord in 2009. Smith's trial is set to begin today and his attorney, Shannon Sexton, has already filed notice of their defense.

The AP reports:

"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."

Now you may be thinking that there is no way this defense will fly. Think again.

In 2009, charges against Daniel Noble were dropped after he was accused of mowing down two pedestrians with his car in Washington. The judge dismissed the charges after tests showed that coffee had triggered a rare form of bipolar disorder, rendering Noble temporarily insane.

'Too Much Caffeine': The New Murder Defense?

[bluestateguy]

1. Dan White's bullshit defense in 1979

nt

[Recursion]

3. The "Twinkie" thing was completely misreported

The junk food was brought up as a symptom of mental illness, not a cause.

[bluestateguy]

11. Too much intellectualizing of what is really just good old fashioned American common sense

nt

[Recursion]

2. I have to wonder if this is being misreported like the "Twinkie defense" was

It's easy to get sensationalistic and boil down a complex legal argument to a few words.

[jobycom]

5. yeah.

I was writing a much longer version of that when you posted. :) I ought to learn to write less. :)

[jobycom]

4. Invalid comparison the Noble case.

His charges were dismissed because he was mentally ill, not because of the caffeine. His bipolar disorder was seen as causing the event. The caffeine was just a trigger.

And I'd have to see more of what the Kentucky man is claiming. The media loves to pretend that these cases are simplistic and goofy, when often they are complex but legitimate medical issues, and sometimes they are complex legal issues that the media tries to boil down into an eye-catching controversy. Of course, sometimes they are actually simplistic and goofy. Need more info.

For those who forgot about the "Twinkie Defense:" There's a myth that Dan White got away with killing Harvey Milk because he claimed that Twinkies made him do it. Those who paid a little more attention will say that White got a reduced sentence because the Twinkies affected his reasoning or mental health. Regardless, the common myth is that White's attorney argued that Twinkies made him kill Milk.

In truth, the lawyers argued that White was suffering from depression that diminished his capacity for premeditation. According to them, all aspects of his life had been affected by this depression, including his diet, and one witness testified that he had gone from being a health food nut to a diet of Twinkies and other junk food. This claim was used only as evidence of his depression, never as the cause of it, and never as the cause of his actions.

He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter instead of premeditated murder because the jury agreed that his depression reduced his capacity for premeditation.

Often, these high profile cases with unusual defenses are twisted by journalists trying to make people mad to sell papers, then picked up by tort reformers, and sadly get remembered by the public in a twisted, conservative format. (read the real story behind the McDonald's coffee case one day).

Anyway, I don't know what the story is on the caffeine argument, but I doubt the reporter in that story does, either.

[drm604]

6. Very well said.

+1000

[jobycom]

7. And I said it

while high on caffeine! :rofl:

Couldn't resist that. Sorry. Thanks. :)

[drm604]

8. You're welcome.

:hi:
It really bugs me that so many people on the left fall for right-wing propaganda (or just plain bad reporting) about legal cases, both criminal and civil.

[damntexdem]

10. Stop it, you kill joys!

We enjoy our Twinkie smears. And for those of us living in San Francisco in 1978 and thereafter, the Twinkie thing was one of the few laugh lines we had.

[jobycom]

12. I was thirteen and living in Lyman, Mississippi when that happened.

And I remember being horrified by it. I remember hearing Diane Feinstein announce the deaths, and the audience crying out in shock. I have no idea if that memory is accurate, but regardless, I've always remembered Feinstein because of that.

So I imagine it was horrible to go through in San Francisco. Seeing him convicted for manslaughter couldn't have been fun, either. Still, I feel a sad need to stick up for the legal process and much-maligned defense attorneys. I'm not always proud of that. :( Sorry to kill your joy.

[Recursion]

13. It was only a few days after Jonestown, too

A bay-area Congressman and a whole lot of bay-area people had just died there.

[jobycom]

15. I never thought about the connection to that area.

Yeah, I can see that being a bad time for the city.

[Recursion]

16. Yeah some people seem to have convinced themselves Jim Jones was a right-wing nutjob

... when in fact he was a pretty far left-wing nutjob. He was a huge figure in Bay Area politics; he got Moscone and Feinstein started.

[Recursion]

14. Ah, the McDonalds coffee case

I have a pre-prepared rant I give to people who bring that one up.

[damntexdem]

9. Nonsense -- everyone knows that lack of caffeine is what's murder!

;-)

But I would like to know whether or not Smith dunked Twinkies in his coffee. ;-)