¿Would Dan White get away with it in the present time?

To refresh the mind of the elder Dopers, or to let the younger dopers know what the heck I am talking about. Let me give you the run-down. This information is based on my sources, if I am wrong, feel free to tell me, but before I get people in a brouhaha I’d like to point out this is not my sole interpetation, this is the information I got form sources. My main source was this page
http://www.backdoor.com/CASTRO/milkpage.html

Dan White, ex-supervisor for San Fransisco, killed San Fransisco Mayor George Moscone and new Supervisor, Harvey Milk. As the story goes, Dan White quit his job as supervisor because he was not making enough money to support his french fry stand. Shortly after quitting, White went to Mayor Moscone and asked for his job back, Moscone refused and White shot him to death and then marched down the hall and killed Supervisor Harvey Milk (supposedly because he was gay, but thats a whole other story within itself). When Dan White went to trial his whole defense was that the night of the murders he had eaten too much junk food, primarily twinkies, and therefore was temporarily insane when he shot Mayor Moscone and Surpervisor Milk. Dan White was only found guilty of manslaughter and was given 7 years of jail, which he only served 4 of. He was not found guilty of murder because of his “junk food” defense.

Now, time to unleash the hounds.
Say if this crime were to happen today, would Dan White get away with it? Why or why not?

Well, it depends on whether you think he got away with it because of the Twinkie defense, or because one of his victims was a very prominent homosexual.
If it’s the first, it all depends on the particular jury selected for the re-trial. If its the second, I would have to defer to people in the S.F. area on attitudes towards homosexuality out there. S.F. is well-known as the “Gay mecca”, but I have no idea of the true attitudes of straights out there (who would presumably make up the majority of the jury.)

Sua

In a very real sense he got away with much more. He admited in later years that he conspired and pre-meditated the political assasinations. Lovely fellow… I’m glad he killed himself, few were as deserving.

I can’t remember where I read it, but the junk food was not the cause of White’s temporary insanity, it was a symptom of it.

White’s life had gone wrong after leaving his job, and he became very depressed. The twinkies became an issue because they were entered as evidence of his depression - he went from a strict physical fitness regime to junk food binges.

No one suggested that the junk food made him do it. That’s media spin on a tabloid headline.

You probably read it right here : Mailbag : Did a murderer escape punishment using the “Twinkie defense”?