Lorena

In the middle of a June night in 1993, a young woman slices off her husband’s penis in a seeming fit of rage.  John and Lorena Bobbitt’s dueling versions of the attack explode into the worldwide media and spill into the courtroom. The nation takes sides as a renewed battle of the sexes feeds a ravenous 24-hour TV news cycle.  

Acquitted of rape, John became a celebrity while Lorena stood trial, facing decades in prison. TV cameras recorded her ordeal as prosecutors attacked her relentlessly—a jealous shrew, a liar and thief.  But though John proved a poor witness, and her lawyers demonstrated years of domestic abuse, it looked doubtful that they could prove she was legally insane the night she cut off his penis.

As Lorena’s trial resumed, all agreed she had been abused.  But was she legally insane when she attacked John? Millions stayed glued to their TVs as her testimony reached the fateful night she lost all control. Her lawyers had to prove she was under the influence of an “irresistible impulse,” a defense that rarely worked. As momentum seemed to swing against her, a surprise witness took the stand.

Millions of TV viewers sat glued to their sets to see what fate Lorena would meet. Would she be found guilty and deported? Found not guilty and have the opportunity to rebuild? John and Lorena would set out on wildly different paths-- John chased fame in a self-destructive downward spiral, while Lorena had to come to grips with the scars of her ordeal, no matter the verdict.