User:Ella Plantagenet/Reversal of Fortune plot description

Plot

Through flashbacks, we learn that Sunny von Bülow (Glenn Close), is in a persistent vegetative state, and her children, deeply suspicious of her husband, Claus von Bülow (Jeremy Irons) after an earlier incident where Sunny was found unconscious and barely alive, hired an attorney to perform a search of the von Bülow mansion. The attorney they hired found syringes and insulin in Claus' closet. On this evidence, plus the statements of Sunny's longtime personal maid and her children, Claus is convicted of the attempted murder of wife.

Seeking to mount an appeal, Claus contacts renowned lawyer and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver), and pleads with Dershowitz to take his case. Dershowitz reviews the files and notes surrounding the original trial, and becomes convinced Claus has had his civil rights violated, and despite his personal distaste for Claus, agrees to handle the appeal. In return, Claus agrees to pay an outrageously high (for the time) hourly fee, which Dershowitz will use to fund another case he has taken, that of two destitute and innocent black kids on death row.

Dershowitz determines that in order to win the appeal, their team will need to rebutt every aspect of the prosecution's original case as well as the perception from the public at large is that Claus is guilty. Dershowitz assembles the very best of his current and former students to form the appeals team, and assigns them all a different aspect to tackle.

We learn from Sunny's voiceover that she was hypoglycemic, and despite being warned not to indulge in sweets, she often consumed large quantities, as well as being a heavy smoker, drinker, and "popped [pills] like M&M's". She explains that she liked to spend all day in bed (though she hadn't had sex with Claus in years), and didn't care for much else.

Over dinner with Dershowitz's legal team, Claus reveals much more about the circumstances surrounding the day before Sunny fell into her first coma. Sunny loved the holidays, and always made a very large batch of egg nog during the holiday season. Claus states that Sunny never touched alcohol except when she was upset or in social situations to overcome her shyness, but that day Sunny drank a lot of the egg nog, due to their divorce discussions. Claus had told Sunny about his mistress, Alexandra Isles a few months previously, as his relationship with Alexandra fell outside of Sunny and Claus's mutual agreement to not have "extracurricular activities" with someone within their social circle. After their argument over the holidays, Claus states that Sunny had drunk so much egg nog that she needed to be helped into bed. Sunny dismisses Claus by demanding another drink, and waves off her children by insisting she go to the bathroom alone. Sunny and Claus continue to argue well into the night, at the end of which Sunny insists, over Claus's objections, that their relationship is "hopeless" and they should divorce. Claus explaining that Sunny was furious with him for not allowing her to commit suicide, and her children became deeply distrustful of him, suspecting he attempted to murder her.

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Gradually, Dershowitz's legal team is able to disprove every aspect of the prosecution's medical case, the crowning blow being the discovery that mixing phenobarbital and Valium and ingesting them orally (not intravenously) can result in a false-postive lab reading for insulin, and the State never had the original lab findings that showed an insulin overdose retested.

Using this argument, plus evidence that discredited all of the State's original witnesses for varying reasons, Dershowitz is able to have Claus' convictions overturned. Upon receiving the notes from the original attorney who conducted the illegal search of the von Bulows' closet, it becomes clear that the witnesses were coached after the lab findings showing the false positive for insulin to testify they had seen insulin previous to Sunny falling into her second coma. In fact, the maid has been unable to determine what was in the black medical bag she found shortly before Sunny fell into her coma, as the labels had been ripped off. Claus's second trial results in acquittal.