"Abuse Excuse"

[Michael K. Gottlieb]

On Sat, 7 Aug 1999, James E. Clapp wrote:

> "Twinkie Defense" (though I recently read or heard something about a
> lawyer in the Twinkie case claiming there was no such defense and it's all
> an urban legend--or at any rate a distortion or confusion about the nature
> of the defense raised in that famous anti-Gay hate crime).

My understanding, based on what I've heard from those involved in the
case, is that Dan White's sugar intake leading up to the double murder
(his consumption of Twinkies) was mentioned as an off-hand remark by one
of the testifying doctors and the later exaggerations were a result of
the public shock at the success of White's diminished capacity defense.
The defense, however, was not at all based or dependent on White's Twinkie
habits.