Husband accused of murdering his wife claims insanity by caffeine as defence

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 2:35 PM on 20th September 2010

A man accused of strangling his wife is poised to claim an intake of excessive caffeine rendered him temporarily insane on the night of the murder.

Woody Will Smith, 33, says he had so many sodas, energy drinks and diet pills that he he couldn't have knowingly killed his wife, Amanda, 28.

Police say Smith used an extension cord to strangle his wife, then used the same cord to bind her feet together. Smith then used another cord to tie his wife's hands.

Defence attorney Shannon Sexton filed notice with the court in Newport, Kentucky, of plans to argue that caffeine made his client unable to commit the crime.

Woody Smith had been having trouble sleeping in the run-up to May 4, 2009, partly out of fear that his wife would leave him and take their two young sons.

In the weeks preceding the murder, Smith told Dr. Robert Noelker, a psychologist from Williamstown hired by the defence, that he hadn't been sleeping, in part out of fear his wife would take their two children and leave him.

Smith told he remembers taking his children to school on the morning of May 4, 2009.

But Smith remembers little else about the ensuing hours.

'The next several hours of Mr. Smith's life, were described to me as if he were in a daze,' Noelker wrote in a report.

A legal strategy invoking caffeine intoxication is unusual but has succeeded at least once before, in a case involving a man cleared in 2009 of charges of running down and injuring two people with a car in Washington state.

Dr. Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University has noted in an unrelated study that there is a diagnosis for 'caffeine intoxication', which includes nervousness, excitement, insomnia and possibly rambling speech.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, said their own expert may testify there was no evidence Smith had consumed diet pills or energy drinks as he claimed before his wife died.

Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass said Smith tested negative for amphetamine-type substances shortly after the killing.

Reports and case records say during that time, he was drinking five or six soft drinks and energy drinks a day, along with taking diet pills - adding up to more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - published by the American Psychiatric Association showing standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders - defines overdose as more than 300 mg.

That's about three cups of coffee.

Noelker said he determined Smith was open to 'brief psychosis' brought on by sleep deprivation, which was caused by the heavy ingestion of diet pills and caffeine in the weeks leading up to his wife's death.

Noelker is expected to be called as a defence witness.

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313649/Husband-accused-murdering-wife-claims-insanity-caffeine-defence.html