| The standards for letting people off the hook are basically delusion and compulsion: either one did not, in some key aspect, know what one was doing, or it was beyond ordinary control. By extension, we recognize as mitigations times when judgment is clouded, though not wholly deluded, or when the motivation is exceptionally difficult to resist, though not impossible. By default, absent proof that the person is beyond responsibility, we assume there is some. Things like the "Twinky defense" have no solid scientific verification, and are highly speculative. At best, they might establish mitigation, and either reduce the charge, or make the sentence more lenient...... |
