Its an old urban legend. The story goes that a man killed someone, and claimed that, because he ate too many twinkies, he became hyperglycimic and was no longer in control of his actions. While arguments have been made for the hyperglycimia defence (and to an extent they can work), it has never been successfuly argued (nor attempted that i know of) that snack foods, or food in general can cause temporary insanity.

also, props to Stof.

Stof has hit this right on the head. The insatity plea works in less than 1% of all cases that attempt it. This is an excruciatingly hard defense to mount, and is normally ill-advised. This is not a way to be proven innocent. This is a way to get locked into an insane asylum for longer than yuo would have been in prison. On average you can expect to spend ~50% more time in an asylum than you would have spent in jail for the exact same crime.

Agreed, I suppose if the state you're in has the death penalty then it might be preferable to plead insanity, but It would probably be better to do the jail time than the mental treatment time

It's not an urban legend it's misconstrued. Twinkies were brought into evidence in the Harvey Milk/ George Moscone killings by Dan White. The "Twinkie Defense" had nothing to do with blood sugar in reality but it was to show that White was normally a really healthy guy and he had started to eat junk food and get depressed etc. He was only charged with manslaughter in the end. After he got out he commited suicide.

Damn, must have been thinking of something else then...

I hate it when that happens >_

 That's the case the urban legend came from. There never really was a twinky causing a diabetic emergency or hypoglcemic situation that was used in court...at least to the ebst of my knowledge.

Wow, some of you know nothing about the criminal justice system. You know it really is helpful to do 2 seconds of research before you act like you are some kind of authority on the subject.

Just because you are found not guilty under the insanity defense does not mean you get off scot free. It means you get institutionalized, sometimes for the rest of your life. Hell, prison might be a better option than that.  Kudos to stof for preaching fact over fiction.

And other people here have commented correctly that this defense rarely, if ever, flies with the jury. In all honesty, juries most likely INCORRECTLY hold that the defendant was not insane more often than they incorrectly hold that he was insane because of all the stigma attached to this defense. Convincing twelve people in a room that you were insane, typically twelve people who are at least somewhat skeptical of the insanity defense, is quite an accomplishment.

This also had a great deal to do with the fact that he was charged with killing a gay person, Harvey Milk to be exact, as well as the mayor who supported him.  Thanks for letting us in on those facts!

Good conversation in this thread. Zapp Brannigan is pleased.........sexually.

I think if someone is believed to be insane then they would pose a threat to other prisoners. To be honest, I hear a lot of people say that insane asylums are worse than prisons, which I can imagine is the case.

Either way, a punishment is usually doled out.