Can anybody imagine a defense strategy that wouldn’t be seen as utter bull **** right away?
Seen as, or actually bs?
Not actually bs , not a chance.
One that might work public opinion wise?
I'd essentially plead an insanity like defense. State that years of being harassed for both his race and sexuality by both the public and Co workers ( find a couple people willing to attest to generic kind of events) caused him to snap, and that he felt the need to do something, anything to fight back against this constant harassment.
Is it a legal defense? Maybe, probably not, but it's going to put the judge in the super awkward position of seeming to punish a victim for being harassed to the point of mental break down (to a decent chunk of the population anyway).
Best defense is to make this an ugly **** storm, put as much pressure from the court of public opinion as possible, play up key sympathy points (race,sexuality, mental health, bullying, victimhood) , and get the judge thinking of how he can take care of this quietly as not to be known as " that judge who jailed that hate crime victim".