This is an interesting episode of "American Justice" to put it mildly; it covers a notorious double murder, a lesser known but even more horrible murder, and the humorous case of the woman pimped out by her husband who claimed having sex with strangers was not prostitution but "therapy".
On November 27, 1978, former local politician Dan White assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and rising star Harvey Milk. White entered City Hall via a basement window to avoid the metal detectors, gunned down Moscone in his office then put the gun to the Mayor's head and put two bullets in it. Shortly he gave Milk the same treatment. With motive, method, opportunity, the gun and a confession extracted without duress, this was an open and shut case of a double murder, right?
Unfortunately or otherwise, White's attorney called a plethora of "expert witnesses" who sought to convince the jury otherwise. They did, and the so-called "twinkie defense" was born. One of those expert witnesses appears here; psychiatrist Martin Blinder tells the viewer: "I do not testify for evil people, but sometimes, I find a man who may be basically good, but who cracked, and I can explain to the jury the pressures that cause(d) him to crack".
This is very true, we can all be pushed too far, sometimes the result is a punch, sometimes merely angry words. It remains to be seen though how much duress can excuse a double murder. After serving five years of his seven year sentence for manslaughter, White returned to San Francisco where he committed suicide on October 21, 1985.
Outrageous though White's acquittal may have been, Scott Falater's murder of his wife remains an enigma. Falater stabbed her 44 times and just for good measure, drowned her in the back garden pool; the crime was witnessed by a neighbour. Falater claimed to have no memory of it at all, and although the jury was convinced that the complexity of his actions could not have been committed while he was sleepwalking, it was admitted he had a history of sleepwalking, and absolutely no motive for committing the crime.
The third case here is that of the woman who claimed Prozac turned her into a nymphomaniac, and that the sex sessions held at her home with the consent of her husband constituted not prostitution but "therapy". Curiously, neither of them mentioned the hidden camera. Sordid but hilarious, and of course a victimless crime, apart from the local politician/church deacon who was caught on tape administering the "therapy" to the patient!