David Gengler’s request for post-conviction relief was partially based on the argument diabetes caused him not to comprehend what he was doing when he pled no contest to charges against him.
Gengler said he was not diagnosed with adult onset diabetes until he came to the intake unit of the state prison system to begin serving his 33-year sentence.
A defense based on diminished capacity is allowed in some U.S. courts. Many of the defenses are built on the accused having an “altered state of mind” brought on by diabetes.
The argument is somewhat similar to the infamous “Twinkie defense,” in which diminished capacity was blamed on high sugar levels.
The case involved Dan White, a former San Francisco city supervisor, who came to city hall and shot and killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in November 1978.
White was angry with the pair for not supporting his request to be allowed to retake his seat on the board of supervisors. He had resigned his position less than two weeks earlier.
When White, a former San Francisco cop and firefighter, went on trial for the double murders, his attorney mounted a defense based partly on diminished capacity.
The attorney claimed in part White’s depression led to an addiction to junk foods with a high sugar content.
The high sugar levels, in turn, were said to have impaired his judgment.
Twinkies — a snack cake containing a substantial amount of sugar — was one of the “junk foods” mentioned in passing during the trial.
White’s lawyer never argued specifically the consumption of Twinkies was the direct cause of his client’s actions.
He did tell the jury, however, that White’s over-the-top consumption of high-sugar-level foods was symptomatic of his underlying depression.
And, the defense attorney argued, the high sugar level could have resulted in his client acting out of character because of an altered state of mind.
Even though the main basis for the defense was White’s depression, reporters covering the trial focused on the high-sugar-level argument and dubbed it “the Twinkie defense.” The name stuck.
The jury apparently bought into the claim, at least partially.
White was convicted of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison for seven years and eight months for killing the mayor and city supervisor.
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia mentioned the “Twinkie defense” during oral arguments in a case dealing with the right of a person to have the attorney of his or her choice.
“I don’t want a competent lawyer, I want a lawyer who will get me off. I want a lawyer who will invent the “Twinkie defense’,” Justice Scalia commented.
Justice Scalia said, “I would not consider the “Twinkie defense” the invention of a competent lawyer, but I would not care about that. My main concern would be to have a lawyer who is going to win for me.”
White was released from Soledad State Prison in January 1984 after serving slightly more than five years of his sentence for the murders.
He killed himself in late October 1985 by attaching a hose to the exhaust of his wife’s car and running it into the passenger compartment.
The coroner ruled his death a suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. He was 39 years old.
There have been other trials where diabetes has been pointed to as a reason defendants have not been thinking straight when committing criminal acts.
California did away with the term “diminished capacity” largely due to negative publicity flowing from the White case and others of a similar nature.
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