Jodi Arias, Casey Anthony, Lorena Bobbitt All Hypnotized America; Are We Fascinated by Femme Fatales? Can they Get a Fair Trial?

The trials of Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony, and years ago the trial of Lorena Bobbitt, kept the nation glued to its TV. The trials of violent women have captivated America since the days of Lizzie Borden.

These femme fatales will all go down in history as villainous, conniving women whose crimes boggled the imagination. Car wrecks that we can’t help but rubberneck. Why are we fascinated by these violent women and can they get a fair trial under such scrutiny?

Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony were both tried for killing people they loved. They both faced the death penalty. Casey Anthony was found not guilty. Jodi Arias was convicted.

The crimes of both Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony took place in June 2008. On June 8, 2008, Jodi Arias stabbed Travis Alexander 27 times, shot him in the face and slashed his throat from ear to ear so violently she almost took his head off. On June 16, 2008, Casey Anthony killed her child, Caylee Anthony. Both women denied having anything to do with the crime. Both claimed they had sketchy memories of the incidents. After blaming a masked intruder, Jodi Arias finally admitted she killed her boyfriend in self-defense. Both women were branded as liars and killers before their cases ever came to trial.

Lorena Bobbitt was convicted of cutting off her husband’s penis after years of alleged abuse. Lizzie Borden was acquitted in the axe murder of her parents. In the modern cases the women accused were all found to have emotional disorders. Lorena Bobbitt was diagnosed with clinical depression and PTSD when she cut off her abusive husbands' penis. Casey Anthony's lawyer, Jose Baez suggested Casey Anthony had been sexually abused by her father, George. The prosecution painted this as a trick to to make Casey Anthony more sympathetic. George Anthony tried to kill himself after denying abuse on the stand. Jodi Arias steadfastly held to the story that she acted in self-defense, that Travis Alexander was prone to violent outburst that the two kept secret. The jury rejected that defense.

Lorena Bobbitt’s husband John came home drunk from a party and had forcible sex with her. Out of wedlock, this could be called rape. She cut off his penis, panicked and ran out of the house with his penis still in her hand, finally throwing it out of her car window before realizing what she did and calling 911. She remembered the crime and it was proven that she was abused.

Casey Anthony avoided the media. Jodi Arias embraced it. Lorena Bobbitt was denied it. Her husband went on to capitalize on it by making low-budget porn videos.

None of the women will ever be forgiven by the public. None of the sexual abuse that was alleged will ever be investigated.

by Tony Sokol