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waterfield
Well-sexual battery is a general intent crime-meaning all the prosecution needs to prove is that he intended to do the act regardless of whether he harbored an intent to do harm to the victim. A specific intent crime is where the accused knows full well what he intends to accomplish (i.e. I'm going to steal your car) (I'm going to kill my mother in law) (I'm going to rob this bank) If you and I are drinking at a bar and I don't care for what you say about my Rams so I throw a punch at you -that is a general intent crime since I'm trying to hit you not necessary "injure" you. OTOH if I tell someone I'm going to break that guy's nose and then I go and hit him-that is a specific intent crime.
In the twinkie case the alleged wrongdoing was a specific intent crime (murder) so diminished capacity (i.e. lack of capacity to form the specific intent) became an issue-hence the final jury verdict of manslaughter due to White's depression. The "twinkies" were simply a sign of his depression-so the argument went-not the "cause" of his conduct.
In criminal law the line between general and specific intent crimes can be blurred especially to the lay public.
