"Dan White's lawyers argued that his diet of junk food created a chemical imbalance that led to the killings. The press coined it "The Twinkie Defense"."

According to Randy Shilts' "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk," White was acquitted partly due to the Twinkie Defense and partly due to the foolish mistake the prosecutors made by playing the tape of his confession for the jurors, which ended up having the opposite effect of what they thought it would. The confession was filled with tear-streaked pleas for understanding of his depression and the pressures in his life. At least two of the jurors started crying out of sympathy and compassion for him.
Hence the White Night Riots.

He also killed a beloved mayor who was straight.

Ya, that is right. lol I thought they said his junk food eating was the reason. The sugar made him have some kind of chemical imbalance. To be fair, I never really payed to much attention to that part of the story. I knew the only reason he got off was because he killed a gay man. His defense was irrelevant.

And yet another person that doesn't understand the defense that was used. It's still despicable that it worked but what the defense was was that him eating junk food was an indication that he was depressed and that that depression is the reason he killed Milk and Mascone. The defense was not that the junk food caused him to kill.