WEBVTT - An Irresistible Impulse 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:08.320 Years ago, a criminal trial began in a case that 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:12.520 shocked the world. Lorraina Bobbitt goes on trial for maliciously 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.120 wounding her husband and a lot of people are watching. 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.680 The twenty four year old manicurist from Venezuela is accused 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.160 of severing the penis of her husband, twenty six year 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:25.520 old John Bobbitt, while he was sleeping Lorena bob It's 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.520 unthinkable act divided a nation and also amused it. But 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.320 to see it on the news, what happened to him? 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:39.479 Very funny? Really. Bobbitt claims she was temporarily insane at 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:41.680 the time of the crime. It was a story about 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.159 a woman who said that her husband had been abusing 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.120 her in terrible, horrific ways for years, and she did 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.520 something horrible, something she was found not guilty of doing. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.040 What kind of evidence do you need? You show up 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:55.960 in court with your dick in your hand and nobody 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:00.120 gets convicted of anything. This week on the thread, why 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.560 did Lorena Bobbitt do it? And did she deserve to 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.640 get away with it? Listen to my story about a 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.480 man named John Poor ex Marine win A little fraction 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:14.119 gone big one night African win w whout DOFs back 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:19.399 up Win's wife of Na Penis that is clean cut. 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.920 I'm Sean Braswell And This is the Thread a podcast 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.200 where we unraveled the stories behind some of the most 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.360 important lives and events in history to learn more about 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.880 the surprising connections between them Today. The case of Lorraina Bobbitt, 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:35.320 her attorneys claimed she was so out of her mind 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.479 after suffering from years of domestic abuse, that she could 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.880 not resist the impulse to wound her husband while he slept. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.320 The shocking story of Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt from 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.480 the early nineteen nineties remains seared into the memories of 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:52.520 millions of Americans, and twenty five years later, it has 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.240 returned to the spotlight, including in the new docuseries Lorena. 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.800 But the incredible tale is also part of a larger story, 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:13.680 one shaped by a controversial criminal defense, legal insanity. So 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.320 what's the Thread? In the last episode, we heard about 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.280 the horrific shooting in a Colorado movie theater in twelve 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.040 James Holmes murdered twelve injured dozens more. He was mentally 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.880 ill by almost all accounts, but that wasn't enough to 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.640 mount a successful insanity defense. One of the main reasons 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.680 that proving legal insanity can be tough today for defendants 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.640 like Holmes was the public reaction to the outcomes in 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:47.720 some earlier cases, cases like a rain of Bobbitt's. In 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:52.160 the early morning hours of June twenty six, year old 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.760 John Wayne Bobbitt awoke to every man's worst nightmare. John 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.679 wakes up out of a dead sleep. Marissa Kashino is 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.600 a scene your editor at Washingtonian magazine. She spent a 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:04.720 lot of time covering the Bobbit case for its twenty 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.640 fifth anniversary. He told me that he thought at first 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.680 that it was like a Freddy Krueger thing. Freddy Krueger 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.320 was a famous movie serial killer from the nineteen eighties, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:21.320 the one who had razors for fingers. He thought he 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.240 was having a nightmare. He just sort of didn't understand 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.040 what was going on. He was totally disoriented. John had 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.120 been out with a friend and returned late that night 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.040 to the apartment he and Lorraine shared in Manassas, Virginia. 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.760 So John's out clubbing. He comes home about three in 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.840 the morning. Lorena says, you know, he wakes her up. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.760 He smells like alcohol, and he climbs on top of her. 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.680 So Lorena says that she said clearly that she did 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.320 not want to have sex, and that John ignored her 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.200 and went ahead and had sex with her anyway, um, 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.040 and then promptly passed out. Next Lorena would later claim 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.960 she went to the kitchen for a glass of water, 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.920 She sees a knife, she grabs it. Um, she goes 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.200 back into the bedroom, and you know, the rest is 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.640 sort of history. She cuts off his penis while he 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.400 is asleep. Lorena later claims she had no memory of 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:18.960 her moment. Insteed, she doesn't really come to until she 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.640 goes downstairs and gets into her car and realizes that 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:27.039 she can't drive because her hands are full. So she 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.760 looks down and she's got a bloody knife in one 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.760 hand and she has his penis in the other hand, 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.480 And that, she says, is when it kind of hits her. 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:38.560 You know what has happened. It's the middle of the night, 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.200 and loren is not sure what to do. She sort 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.440 of freaks out. She starts driving in her kind of 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.159 state of trauma and shock. She throws the penis out 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.400 the window of the car into a grassy field that 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.600 is near a seven eleven. Lorena later told police where 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.800 she thought she'd thrown the dismembered organ, and investigators were 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.880 able to recover it and the seven eleven, so they 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.000 bring it inside and um. According to one of the 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:10.159 surgeons who later operated on John, they packed the penis 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.039 in a hot dog bag full of ice, and that 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.440 is how it arrived to the emergency room at the hospital. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.280 The doctors in the emergency room had never seen anything 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.640 like John's injury, and no one was sure if the 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.840 preserved member could be reattached. So it's an eight or 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:30.040 nine hour surgery, very intense, and the surgeons say that, 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:32.120 you know, they kind of held their breath and at 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.520 the end they took the tourniquet off, and the organ 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.600 pinked up and the blood flow was flowing, and they 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.880 sort of breathed a sigh of relief that everything, uh 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.840 seemed to be in working order. Pretty soon, the tales 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.719 of John's unusual surgery and Lorraine's unspeakable act we're all 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.480 over the news. Within days, Lorraine and John Wayne Bobbitt 0:05:53.720 --> 0:06:00.880 were global celebrities. Pretty quickly. The Bobbit's story became, you know, 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:07.480 a huge media circus, tabloid sensation. You know, everybody wanted 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:12.000 to know more about it. Just one of the most 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:15.080 talked about stories of the year, the case has struck 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.560 un sore. Details of a marriage gone berserve Bobby's could 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:20.839 only get more attention if they were starring in a 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:26.200 TV movie. Lorena and John had to quickly figure out 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.120 how to navigate that world, which you know, as a 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.360 marine slash warehouse worker and a manicurist they were completely 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.080 unfamiliar with. I mean, this thing threw them into the 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.480 limelight in a way that neither of them, I think, 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.880 you know, could have ever previously imagined. The Bobbit's marriage 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.760 and lives were opened and dissected for public consumption. Lorraina 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:54.120 Bobbitt originally Lareda Gallo, was from Ecuador and also spent 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:56.760 part of her childhood in Venezuela. She was a young 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.760 immigrant to Virginia when she met John Wayne Bobbitt, and 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.400 at first Lorena was very smitten with him. He was 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.840 a marine, he was very nice to her while they 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.280 were dating. She says that John was, you know, her 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.080 first real boyfriend, her first you know, sort of everything. 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.160 In less than a year, they were married, and their 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:22.200 marriage was chaotic, to say the least. Um they were 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:27.080 scraping by. John at that point was a warehouse worker 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:31.240 and Lorena was a manicurist. She worked a nail salon. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.560 Like many young married couples, the Bobbit's had a complicated relationship, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.520 But what the media and the late night comedians mostly 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.440 wanted to focus on was John's penis, even if much 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.640 of what they said were little resemblance to what actually happened. 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:46.840 I'm kind of curious how you lose your dick and 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:53.880 not notice bring do you suddenly wake up a Kendall 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.720 I mean picture to Citiot out into Woods three and 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.560 the more and looking into pushes. Even with his manhood 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.960 being discussed on every channel, John stayed quiet. Meanwhile, Lorena 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.200 hired a publicist to tell her side of the story. 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.560 Vanity Fair was the magazine that got the first full 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:19.560 length feature interview with Lorena. Um Loreno went and did 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.680 a big photo shoot at her that lawyer's house, in 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.600 her bathing suits. In the article and elsewhere, Lorena claimed 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.200 that John raped her that night and was abusive for years. 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.439 The claims sparked a nationwide debate. As the case went 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.520 to trial, it was billed as a battle of the sexes. 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.520 I must say one of the stunning things was the 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:43.000 circus outside. Barriers put up with women on one side, 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.520 men on another. This is John's attorney at the time, 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.199 Greg Murphy. There was such a huge crowd out in 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.840 front that we had to arrange with the sheriff and 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.400 the court so we could get through and into the 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.880 court house. Hundreds of reporters and caravans of satellite trucks 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.520 converged on the historic Civil War town Manassas, Virginia, not 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.600 far from Washington, d C. The Oscar Meyer wienermobile also 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.440 turned up, so did a local rock band who played 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.839 fifty Ways to Cleave Your Lover. And then there were 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.079 people in the in the community capitalizing on it. People 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:21.440 selling underwear, underpants, boxer shorts that said Manassas to cut above, um, 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:26.160 a plastic tube that was a uh a bob at 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.439 penis protector. I mean, there were t shirts that said 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.120 the love hurts. I mean, there was so much going 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.400 on out there. Cable television, including a new station called 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.200 Court TV, brought Lorraine's trial into homes across the nation. 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.880 It was probably the first case to go literally viral 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:49.319 over the internet. UM, and it was about eight months 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:56.040 before o J. Simpsons case, which really took off. Lorraino's 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:00.360 trial began twenty five years ago in January, and at 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:19.600 the heart of it was the Insanity Defense. Tired of 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.680 standing idly by while the world goes crazy, Diane Lockhart is, 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.120 and so is the cast of the critically acclaimed legal 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.200 drama The Good Fight. Joined the Fight by watching the 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:33.679 new season, now streaming exclusively on CBS All Access. Tune 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.000 in to see if Diane Lockhart will lead the resistance 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.920 in a new, post factual world, a world where the 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.559 lawyers with the best stories triumph over the lawyers with 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.120 the best facts. Season three of The Good Fight throws 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.839 the standard playbook out the window. New characters new, ripped 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.600 from the news storylines in a dynamic cast that is 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.920 more stacked than ever. Christine Branski is back, is the 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.479 venerable Diane Lockhart, Rose Leslie, Cushed Jumbo, and Andrew McDonald's 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.240 characters challenge the patriarchy at every turn. Well Actor Michael 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.439 Sheen shakes up the screen as infamous lawyer Roland Blum 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.000 a k A. Corruption incarnate. You won't want to miss 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.160 Season three of the Good Fight. The Resistance starts now 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.679 join the Fight by heading on over to CBS dot 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.600 com slash thread to redeem your free trial of CBS 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.160 all Access to watch the new season of The Good Fight, 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:29.559 now streaming exclusively on CBS All Access. That CBS dot 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.079 com slash thread to redeem your free trial of CBS 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:38.160 all Access. The malicious Wounding trial of Lorraina Bobbitt began 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.679 today in the Nassas, Virginia. She has admitted emasculating her 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.520 husband last June. Earlier. Today, she pleaded not guilty to 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:47.959 the charge. This is believed to be a first step 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.079 in a defense of insanity. The charge against Lorna carried 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.199 a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison. She also 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:59.000 faced deportation Marissa Kashino again. The prosecution was out to 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:04.600 prove that Lorena was of sound mind when she um 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.920 when she cut off John's penis, that it was a 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:12.000 malicious act, that she had essentially attacked John not in 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.960 self defense, but out of revenge that fateful night. According 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.840 to prosecutors, Lorena acted out of anger, and she admitted 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.280 that fact to the police. She told him she did 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:24.120 it because her husband didn't wait for her to have 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.439 an orgasm. He was selfish. She said, so I pulled 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.000 back the sheets and then I did it, Greg Murphy again. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.640 They interviewed her again the next day to make sure 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.240 they understood that this is the detective as to the 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.479 reason she gave, and she repeated, because he have orgasm 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.800 and not wait for me. Um, That's obviously not what 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.240 she testified to. Prosecutors argued that letting Lorena off the 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.880 hook for her action because she was upset or angry 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.360 with set a dangerous precedent. She was angry and she 0:12:55.480 --> 0:13:01.520 retaliated against But you know, folk, we don't live in 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.320 a society that is governed by revenge. We don't live 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.959 in a society and which whoever has the biggest knights. 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.640 Lawyers for the defense could not argue that Lorena had 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.480 not done the deed, but they could argue she lacked 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.480 criminal intent. So Lorena's defense team put on a defense 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.520 called Irresistible Impulse. It's a kind of temporary insanity defense. 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.199 So basically the idea is that in that moment, Loreno 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:32.360 was so um kind of traumatized by all of the 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:36.200 past assaults and alleged abuse that she had suffered at 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.760 the hands of her husband, that she snapped Lorna's lawyers 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.040 argued that her four year marriage to John was a 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:46.520 reign of terror. The evidence will show get in her mind, 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.840 it was his penis from which she could not escape 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.080 a number of witnesses corroborated Lorraine's stories of marital abuse, 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.560 including that momentous night in June. Their next door neighbor 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.040 touched off. I know what he called sounds of painful 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.440 sex coming from the Bobby's apartment the night. But the 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.400 most compelling testimony came from Lorena herself. Lorena was very 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.360 emotional on the stand. She cried, um, she you know, 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:18.760 went into detail about the horrific things that she claimed 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.960 to have suffered throughout her marriage to John. He kicked 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:23.680 me and my stone like and he threw me to 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:29.760 the wall. It was like a side side karate kick. 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.480 That was really scared. I was really afraid. John, Lorena claimed, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.480 was also violent on the night in question. I said 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:43.040 I don't want to have sex, and he wouldn't listen 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:47.000 to me. He wouldn't let me, let me go. Then 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.360 John fell asleep and Lorena went into the kitchen. She 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:52.960 testified about what went through her mind when she saw 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.600 the knife. I remember a lot of things. He said 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:00.080 to me, I don't remember the first star every me. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:05.760 There was too so many pictures of my head. I 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:11.240 remember then salt, the debut words, he told me, I 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:21.120 remember everything. Really, you know, I think she really won 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.480 a lot of the public over. You know, the fact 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.880 that the that the trial was televised really helped at 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.080 least a large part of the population sympathized with her. 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:36.120 The clerk at the courthouse told me that after Lorena testified, 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.440 the mail just poured in for her, and Lorena also 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.880 became a symbol for a movement larger than herself. Frankly, 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.160 that was you know, twenty years ago, there wasn't a 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.560 lot of attention on on domestic violence. Kim Gandhi as 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.240 President and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.360 there's no question that there was a tremendous opportunity created 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.520 by the trial. Basically, take the advantage of the media 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:05.960 circus to try to draw attention to something that was 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:13.480 a tremendous, damaging problem two countless women all over the country. 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.520 But being the object of widespread public sympathy was not 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.200 enough for Lorena to avoid a guilty verdict. Her lawyers 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:22.480 had to convince Virginia jurors she was out of her 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.480 mind when she wounded her husband. It was probably one 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.280 of the most bizarre acts that has happened in this countrey. 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:32.560 In a low, low term, everything about this case is 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:38.960 crazy and bizarre. This is a classic case of irresistible impulse. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:43.440 The defense put on an irresistible impulse in sanity defense 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.720 attorney Greg Murphy again in Virginia, there's not a real 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:50.680 definition of what that might be, um, but it is 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.320 a defense that's allowed. And Uh, the irresistible impulse is 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.920 that it's in a moment of passion, you lose control 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.880 of yourself and you act out and you do something 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.920 that is chronical. But it's an impulse that is not 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.440 easy to prove because in order to put on that 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:11.119 defense of irresistible impulse, a defendant really has to have 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.119 been diagnosed with some kind of mental illness or disorder. 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.080 And that meant the experts needed to testify. Both prosecutors 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.639 and defense lawyers called psychologists and psychiatrists to testify to 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.720 the state of Mrs Bobbitt's mental health. Defense lawyers and 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.080 experts argue that Lorrain is suffered from depression, post traumatic 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.359 stress disorder and battered woman syndrome. They claim that she 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.200 finally lost touch with reality after being raped that night. 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:39.160 She had an acute UH deterioration of the mental state 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.600 at that time and became psychotics. The prosecution psychiatrists saw 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.240 it differently. We're talking about an impulse that someone has, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.480 but they cannot stop themselves from doing it because the 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.639 disease of the mind impairs their ability to control themselves. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.440 In this case, the impulse is clear, it's anger, and 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.040 it's cut off her husband's penis. But there's nothing here 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.200 indicating that she can't control herself. The jury left to 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.640 deliberate at the end of the two week trial. They 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.960 returned after just seven hours to announce a verdict. We 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.680 the jury farmed the defendant, Lorena Leonore bob not feel 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.199 delicious wounding as charged in the indictment by reason of 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:27.000 insanity Marissa Kasha. The jury found Lorena not guilty by 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:31.560 a reason of insanity. John obviously felt very differently. He 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.760 felt like everything had been you know, misconstrued, you know, 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:41.440 he had been totally misrepresented, uh, and that she had 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:48.520 gotten off, you know, scott free. There was another side 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.000 to the sordid story, John Wayne Bobbitt's it got lost 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.040 in the media circus, late night jokes and Lorna's tearful 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:59.719 televised testimony. John's lawyer, Greg Murphy. If you looked at 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.520 the transcript of his trial versus her trial, you'll find 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:09.520 two very different set of facts. That's right. John had 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.760 a trial too before Lorraine's, but it didn't get nearly 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.359 the attention that hers did. There's a lot involved in 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:25.479 this case, enormous number of facts that or more people 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.119 don't pay any or haven't paid any attention to. But 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:33.280 the one saient piece is the burning question why did 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.000 she do it? Up next the trial of John Wayne 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:38.760 Bobbitt and the light it sheds on why Lorrena did 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.840 it and whether she was temporarily insane at the time. 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.600 You know, every good litigator is going to do his 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:02.480 own assessment of whether the clients telling the truth. John 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.080 Wayne Bobitt's lawyer, Greg Murphy again, and well, it's not perfect. 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.160 With enough experience, you tend to trust your own judgment, 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.520 and I had felt that John was telling me the truth. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.399 Murphy's instinct also told him there were problems with the 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.920 Rain's story. I had a history of about fifteen or 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:24.720 twenty years of representing women who had been abused, having 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:29.240 dealt with and counseled and helped battered women for so 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.639 many years, or rape victims, she wasn't acting like a 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.480 victim in that sense. And that includes the famous spread 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.480 Lorraine did with Vanity Fair, the one that featured photos 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.280 of her in her bathing suit, And that just is 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.560 not the way someone who's been traumatized by being raped 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.920 or battered would be looking to glamorize themselves, especially so 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.240 close to the event. John's trial began a few months 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.840 before Lorraine is in the fall of He was charged 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.920 with marital sexual assault. So far, no one had heard 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.359 much from John, and he had a very different story 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:06.399 about what happened that night in June. Well, you asked 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:08.720 about the context of what occurred that night. It's not 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:14.560 that simple, because what occurred that night probably was a 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.760 result of the pattern of what had gone on for 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.560 years in the relationship, and it was a relationship that 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.679 outsiders might not have expected from the young, attractive marine 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.160 they saw on the nightly news. It was the exact 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:29.600 role reversal. She had a steady job, she was bringing 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:31.760 in the money. He wasn't doing much at the time, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.760 and it was unsatisfying to her that he was no 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.920 longer this picture perfect, all American military person and now 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.920 it was just lying around playing video games, watching TV, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.960 and working occasionally. Their marriage went downhill quickly. John told 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.720 me that the marriage was tumultuous, that you know, they fought, 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.760 but that he never physically hurt her. On the contrary, 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.600 John claimed he had been the victim of phy cool abuse. 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:03.359 This is how John summarized it on the Steve Harvey 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.439 Show a few years ago. I was ever abusive, No 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.480 one ever, no one that knows me can never tell 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.800 you that was ever abusive, no abusive person. And I'll 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:15.840 believe in violence. Uh did the court. She was the 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:18.920 one that was violent. She attacked me, She stabbed to 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:20.600 the forks. You know, she try to run me over 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.280 the car. John claimed he was asleep on the night 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.399 of his famous wounding, and he immediately held his ground 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:30.640 to stop the bleeding and eventually got up, went into 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:35.159 the other room awakened Robbie. Robbie saw what occurred and 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.080 he took him to the hospital. Robbie Johnson was John's 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.320 best friend, the one he was out with earlier that 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:43.480 night he was sleeping on the bobb It's couch. People 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.359 forget about Robbie, and then he also forget what Lorna 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:49.399 did next, while she was still holding the knife and 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.040 the severed penis in her hand. After leaving John's bedroom 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.600 with these two things in hand, she went into the 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.119 living room where Robbie was asleep, and she stole a 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.200 hundred dollars out of his wallet. And then she looked 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.320 around and found his game boy, stole his game boy, 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:12.320 left carrying all four things in her hands. Not exactly 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.680 of the actions of a person who was traumatized by 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:23.240 being raped that night. Supposedly, we can't know for sure 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:25.960 what compelled Lorena to do what she did, or whether 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:28.280 John abused his wife for years in the manner that 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:31.680 she claimed. John denied those claims, but there were several 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:36.160 witnesses that testified to his abuse of Lorraina. Still, like Lorena, 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:39.800 he was found not guilty. I'm thankful for the jury 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:42.960 and they believed me, and uh, I just want to 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:45.720 get on with my life, and you know, because I 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:47.520 got a lot of healing to do it. And the 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:50.040 facts that came out in John's trial do cast some 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:53.359 doubt on whether Lorena really was insane. The facts just 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:57.000 don't fit irresistible impulse. Here she goes in and gets 0:23:57.000 --> 0:24:01.600 the knife, and then she walks out thinking, you know, 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:04.640 clearly thinking about what she's up to. Because she goes 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:07.280 in and steals hundred dollars in a game boy, it 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:11.360 all seems premeditated. It doesn't seem at all to be 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:15.960 an irresistible impulse. Newsweek took a poll shortly after the trials. 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:19.879 Two thirds of those surveys said Lorraine should be found guilty, 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:22.800 but most thoughts she should receive little or no jail time. 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:26.360 The jurors in her case, however, did not have that option. 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:31.000 They had the insanity defense. This is Andrea Alden, author 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:34.600 of Disorder in the Court, Morality Myth and the Insanity Defense. 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:39.520 It's a lot easier to accept a temporary insanity defense, 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:43.080 I think for somebody like Lorena Bobbitt, who didn't have 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:47.399 a long, undocumented history of mental illness um and so 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:51.480 people were more um inclined to be sympathetic for towards 0:24:51.480 --> 0:24:55.359 her plate. Although her crime was incredibly horrific, many in 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:58.679 the public also felt that John deserved his wound. This 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:01.000 is Richard Bonnie, a profess sort of law and of 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:04.280 medicine at the University of Virginia. The basic dynamic of 0:25:04.320 --> 0:25:07.720 that case for some people is going to be he 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:11.200 deserved it, he had it coming to him. I mean, 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:13.200 as a matter of law, he didn't have it coming 0:25:13.240 --> 0:25:15.720 to him. There's a legal term for when members of 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:18.119 a jury find a defendant like Lorrain of Bobbitt not 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:21.719 guilty because they don't support punishing them even for an 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:25.680 action that is against the law, nullification. So the way 0:25:25.680 --> 0:25:27.399