Manhattan Film Festival

This film examines California's dysfunctional death penalty process via the crimes and punishment of Lawrence Bittaker, a convicted serial rapist and murderer who has spent over thirty years on death row. Bittaker and accomplice Roy Norris' arrest and prosecution for the murder of five teenage girls shocked the nation when it occurred in 1979. Today, he is mostly forgotten as his seemingly endless appeal languishes in the state and federal court system. The film includes actual photo exhibits introduced at trial, the court testimony of Roy Norris, who plead guilty and testified against Bittaker, and a lengthy interview with Stephen Kay, the deputy district attorney who successfully prosecuted Lawrence Bittaker, a man he called 'worse than Manson'.