At trial, Hughes was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity in one of the first cases involving "battered-woman syndrome" as a defense.
[5] Francine later testified in court that although she was reluctant to have him return to the home, she felt she could not refuse as she did not want to "hurt him more...than he already had been", referring to the severity of his injuries from the accident.
[6] The abuse persisted and escalated in the years after Mickey's recovery,[6] and he regularly beat her, destroyed furniture and killed his daughter's kitten.
[2] Francine felt that she could not remove Mickey from the home or move out herself, fearing that he would make good on his constant threats to kill her.
[7][8] On the day of the fire, March 9, 1977, Francine returned from her secretarial course in the afternoon and found Mickey intoxicated and irate.
[19] Hughes set a legal precedent with her case and began a new wave of fighting for domestic abuse to be recognized as a serious issue.
A book about her situation titled The Burning Bed, was the basis of a 1984 made-for-television movie with the same name, starring Farrah Fawcett.
[20][21] According to National Public Radio as broadcast on April 3, 2017, the song "Independence Day" written by Gretchen Peters and made popular by Martina McBride is about this event.
Folk singer Lyn Hardy also created a song about these events entitled "The Ballad of Francine Hughes".