South Carolina Criminal Lawyer Blog

We have all heard of Lorena Bobbitt, who back in 1993, severed almost half of her husband's penis with a knife then drove for a while and threw the penis out of the window. After realizing the severity of her actions, she decided to call 911. The police searched for hours for the penis and finally it was located in a field, packed in ice and taken to the hospital where her husband was being treated. It took two doctors nine and a half hours to reattach. Lorena stated that she did this because that same night her husband came home after drinking heavily and raped her and while she was in the kitchen she saw a carving knife and memories of past domestic abuses raced through her head.

Lorena's defense attorneys argued that her husband's constant abuse caused her to act as she did becuse she was suffering from clinical depression and possibly post traumatic stress disorder because of the abuse. Although, when she was arrested she informed the police that, "He always have orgasm, and he doesn't wait for me to have orgasm. He's selfish." So, of course, the criminal defense attorney for her husband argued that that does not sound like a woman being raped. In the end, they were both acquitted of the charges that they were facing.

Now we have a new case of a woman chopping off her husband's penis because, "he deserved it." Catherine Becker and her husband were in the middle of a divorce when this took place. They had just had an argument over friends staying at their home. After lacing her husband's food with an unknown drug or poison, he went to bed thinking that something was wrong with his food. Once he woke up, Becker had tied his arms and legs to the four corners of the bed and she proceeded to take off his pants and cut off his penis, throw it in the garbage disposal and turn it on.

Becker later called the police to ask for medical help. Once the police arrived, they found her husband tied to the bed and bleeding from his crotch area. The police were able to recover pieces of the penis from the garbage disposal. Her husband was rushed to the hospital where he received emergency surgery and is now in stable condition.

Catherine Becker of Southern California has been charged with one felony count of torture, one felony count of aggravated mayhem, and sentencing enhancements for great bodily injury and personal use of a knife. Becker was scheduled to be arraigned on July 13, 2011, but the arraignment was rescheduled for July 22. After her court appearance, she was sent to the Orange County Jail medical ward to receive a psychological evaluation. If she is convicted of all charges, she faces a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

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