Murder Suspect: Excessive Caffeine Made Me Kill Wife

A Kentucky man charged with killing his wife has come up with a creative defense: excessive caffeination. Woody Will Smith, 33, is accused of strangling his 28-year-old wife with an extension cord last May, but his lawyer says Smith ingested enough caffeine (in the form of soda, energy drinks, and diet pills) to render him temporarily insane in the days before the murder.

“Caffeine intoxication” has in fact succeeded as a defense in at least one other case, the AP reports: that of a man who was cleared of injuring two people with his car last year. Smith claims he hadn’t been sleeping in the weeks prior to his wife’s death, because he was afraid she was going to leave him and take their two children, and that he was ingesting more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day. The trial starts today.
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