"Go Get A Dummy"

The case is People v. Rivera, 133 Cal. Rptr.3d 721 (2011)

In a recent case, a man was accused of strangling his lover to death, but he told the jury he had done so in the heat of passion.  Heat of Passion is a defense or mitigating circumstance that would lessen his sentence.  

The prosecution came up with a creative way to show the jury that the defendant hadn't committed the murder in heat of passion.  The prosecutor asked the defendant to stand and pretend the prosecutor was the lover and the defendant should show the jury how he had strangled the victim.  

Of course the defense objected, but said it might be okay if the prosecution use a mannequin for the 'pretend murder.'  The judge agreed and ordered the prosecutor during recess to find a dummy.  

In the interest of justice, where will it all end.  Will we have defendants, or witnesses, dance with, or pull guns, and shoot at mannequins?  What if we ask the jury to learn some new rap lyrics and see if they are influenced by the violent rhymes?  

In a murder case in 1992 in Indiana, the suspect strangled a woman and then committed unspeakable acts upon the body.  He was on work-release at the time. Part of his defense was that he was insane because he had a sexual and emotional attachment to a store window mannequin.  That's right.  He loved his dummy! She was like a the dummy he never had.

Back then the judge gave him the death penalty and it was later overturned by the state supreme court and sentence was commuted to life in prison (25 years.)  Twenty five years later he was charged with several rapes committed in 1991 and sentenced to an additional 44 years.  So store dummies, wherever you are, you are safe.

I wonder if he would still be on death row if that prosecutor had brought a mannequin to court and asked the defendant to show his love of the mannequin?  Or would that be untrue to his one true love?  Would he be an dum-dulterer?  Would he be able to sue the city for becoming mannequin-depressive? 

This isn't quite the same as the Twinkie defense, but it's close.