Amy Fisher
Image Source: Amy Fisher Entertainment, LLC, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Was the Accusation?
Amy Fisher became the subject of national attention after shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco outside the Buttafuoco family home in Massapequa, New York, on May 19, 1992. Fisher was 17 years old at the time and had been involved in a sexual relationship with Mary Jo’s husband, Joey Buttafuoco. Fisher went to the home and spoke with Mary Jo at the front door before shooting her in the head with a handgun. Mary Jo survived, but the shooting caused severe and lasting injuries, including partial facial paralysis and hearing loss. The case generated extensive television, newspaper, and tabloid coverage, and Fisher was repeatedly labeled the “Long Island Lolita,” a nickname that became closely associated with the sensationalized public presentation of the case.
Fisher was arrested and initially faced an attempted-murder charge. In September 1992, she pleaded guilty to a reduced assault charge and admitted that she had shot Mary Jo. She was sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison. The legal controversy also extended to Joey Buttafuoco. Although he initially denied having a sexual relationship with Fisher, he later pleaded guilty to statutory rape arising from sexual contact with her while she was underage and served a jail sentence. Fisher’s prosecution, Joey Buttafuoco’s subsequent criminal case, and competing accounts of the relationship kept the controversy in the national spotlight well after the shooting itself.
While incarcerated, Fisher sought to overturn her 1992 guilty plea, arguing that she had received ineffective legal representation. By the late 1990s, Fisher and Mary Jo Buttafuoco had also begun corresponding. At an April 1999 court proceeding, Mary Jo supported giving Fisher another opportunity after nearly seven years in prison and told the court that she believed Fisher had demonstrated remorse. Fisher then addressed Mary Jo directly, accepted responsibility for what she had done, rejected the idea that responsibility belonged to Joey Buttafuoco or Fisher’s father, and apologized. The judge vacated Fisher’s original plea, accepted a new guilty plea, and imposed a shorter sentence that made her immediately eligible for parole.
The New York State Parole Board subsequently voted to release Fisher. She left Albion Correctional Facility on May 10, 1999, after serving nearly seven years. Her courtroom statement is significant as an apologia because it was a direct acknowledgement of personal responsibility to the woman she had shot rather than an attempt to deny the act or transfer responsibility to another person. Contemporary reports preserve only portions of the statement, however, so the apology below is presented as a verified excerpt rather than as a complete courtroom transcript.
Key Apologia Strategies:
Mortification, Defeasibility
Video
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Transcript
Amy Fisher’s Courtroom Apology to Mary Jo Buttafuoco (April 23, 1999) — Excerpt
“I’m so, so sorry.”
“What happened to you wasn’t your husband’s fault, it wasn’t even [former Fisher lawyer] Eric Naiburg’s fault, it wasn’t my father’s fault – it was my fault and I’m sorry.”
“Something’s wrong with me and I’ve been trying to understand that for the last seven years.”
Sources
Associated Press. (1992, September 24). Teen-ager pleads guilty in ‘Long Island Lolita’ case. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-24-mn-1330-story.html
Associated Press. (1999, May 6). Amy Fisher to be freed. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-fisher-to-be-freed/
Associated Press. (1999, May 10). Amy Fisher is free. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-fisher-is-free/
People Staff. (1999). Amy Fisher apologizes. People. https://people.com/celebrity/amy-fisher-apologizes/
Reuters. (1999, May 11). Amy Fisher, jailed in N.Y. love triangle shooting, leaves prison. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-11-mn-36058-story.html
The Washington Post. (1999, April 23). Names & faces: A contrite bid for freedom. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/04/23/names-38/1e212d09-2a50-4752-841b-6dc553a21f90/