California woman gets life for chopping off husband's penis

[Zorro]

A judge sentenced a Southern California woman who cut off her estranged husband's penis and tossed it in the garbage disposal to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Catherine Kieu, 50, was convicted by an Orange County jury in April of aggravated mayhem and torture following the July 2011 assault on her ex-husband.

Kieu drugged her former spouse before tying him up and severing his penis with a knife. She then threw it into the garbage disposal unit.

An attorney for Vietnam-born Kieu argued at trial that she had suffered sexual abuse as a child which left her with post-traumatic stress. She was remorseful about the attack, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/california-woman-gets-life-chopping-off-husbands-penis-013356328.html

[niyad]

1. remind me to see how many men are sentenced to life for murdering their wives or lovers.

[Tumbulu]

2. Yes, funny how we never see that......

somehow it is considered some kind of normal behavior to beat a wife or kill her......

[niyad]

3. sickening

[RC]

4. Yeah, she shoulda got off scott free, huh?

[TreasonousBastard]

27. Lorena Bobbit did-- claimed temporary insanity and got away with it.

[NaturalHigh]

5. Uh...lots of men have been sentenced to life for murdering their wives.

Do you think this woman should have gotten off for maiming her husband?

[niyad]

7. really? you can show me stats on that? because I have been a dv counsellor a very long time

and I really don't remember any.

[NaturalHigh]

9. What kind of stats?

I'm sure I can find several examples with just a quick Google or Bing search.

You seriously don't think that men get sentenced to life for murdering spouses? Watch a crime show on Discovery ID or NBC or any other network. It's not that rare. They usually don't get the Betty Broderick celebrity treatment and get a lighter sentence. Male murderers don't usually make it on Oprah.

[niyad]

11. tv shows don't count. doj stats would do for a start, or pick any state--like, say, texas.

texas:


"Even so, Texas women were not permitted to serve on juries until 1954. As late as 1969, married women did not have full property rights. And until 1972, under Article 1220 of the Texas Penal Code, a man could murder his wife and her lover if he found them 'in a compromising position' and get away with it as 'justifiable homicide.' Women, you understand, did not have equal shooting rights. Although Texas was one of the first states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which has been part of the Texas Constitution since 1972, we continue to work for fairer laws concerning problems such as divorce, rape, child custody, and access to credit."

[NaturalHigh]

13. I did a quick google search.

"men sentenced to life for murder wives"

Several examples showed up. I'm not going to look up state-by-state statistics. Your personal experiences (or prejudices) don't count any more than tv shows. If you want to do some research, feel free. I'm not in the habit of wasting my time trying to change a mind that is already made up.

[niyad]

14. you apparently didn't read what I wrote, but then, not surprising. I just LOVE the "personal

prejudice" dig, but that is okay. believe me, i understand completely.

and, like you, I don't waste time with people whose minds are made up.

[NaturalHigh]

15. In response to your edit:

I know of two women from Texas who only got 20-year sentences for murdering their husbands: Susan Wright and Clara Harris. If you happen to be from Texas, you know of at least that many.

[TreasonousBastard]

24. 1972? Any changes in sentencing in the intervening 40 years? Seems like...

with all the murderers Texas executes, one or two might be for killing the wife. Crimes of passion are always fascinating, and possibly still a good defense in France, but really should be applied equally to wives. As it was to Lorena Bobbit. She got off, if you remember.

BTW, you brought up the point that sentencing is unequal, so it would seem to behoove you to come up with some evidence rather than demand it from someone questioning your facts.

[BainsBane]

33. She didn't murder him.

He's still alive.

[NaturalHigh]

35. I didn't post the original comment...

about whether or not men get life sentences for murdering their wives. I was responding to that comment, but I do think that the sentence this woman got was fair.

Post #1: remind me to see how many men are sentenced to life for murdering their wives or lovers.

[BainsBane]

36. Sorry, I lost my way there

[NaturalHigh]

38. No problem.

[LadyHawkAZ]

12. A better question would be

how many get life for maiming their wives or lovers?

[niyad]

16. oh, we dare not ask that question. how impertinent and inconsiderate of us.

[LadyHawkAZ]

17. I actually agree with the sentence she got

but it did bring to mind that FGM case a few years back where the dad got a whole whopping 10 years.

[NaturalHigh]

19. What was the FGM case?

[LadyHawkAZ]

22. Found it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/us/02brfs-001.html?_r=0

An Ethiopian immigrant was convicted of the genital mutilation of his 2-year-old daughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in what was believed to be the first such criminal case in the United States. The man, Khalid Adem, 30, left, was found guilty of aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Prosecutors said Mr. Adem used scissors to remove his daughter’s clitoris in his family’s Atlanta-area apartment in 2001. Mr. Adem wept loudly after the jury’s verdict was read. Federal law bans the practice of genital mutilation, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of the girl’s mother, passed an antimutilation law last year.

[NaturalHigh]

28. I hadn't heard of that.

That's a really messed up "father." Somehow I wasn't moved that "Mr. Adem wept loudly after the jury’s verdict was read." I'm guessing he didn't pay any attention to his daughter's cries.

[LadyHawkAZ]

29. Yeah, his tears didn't break my heart either

but his sentence did. What a ginormous POS.

[NaturalHigh]

32. Yes, it should have been triple, at least.

The story said that he was an immigrant. Any chance he will be deported after he serves his sentence?

[LadyHawkAZ]

40. I don't remember seeing anywhere if he'd gotten citizenship or not

If not, then he'll probably be deported; I think that's standard.

[TreasonousBastard]

31. My God-- that's ghastly! But it is common practice in much of Africa...

although the rest of the world is trying to pressure them to stop.

This guy-- I don't know if he was crying because he realized what he did was wrong, or because he couldn't understand why he was in jail for doing what had been done in his village for generations.

[LadyHawkAZ]

37. Granted, I have a strictly Western viewpoint

but I would think that in any situation, if you are slicing your child and they are bleeding and screaming, you KNOW you have done something horrific, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.

The waah was probably because he got punished. If he heard his child screaming and chose not to acknowledge the wrongness of it at the time, then I doubt the trial changed his mind.

[NaturalHigh]

41. That was my thought too.

If he did this while his little girl was screaming in pain, he's a monster who is only crying because he is being punished.

[TreasonousBastard]

48. My Western viewpoint, too, but...

assuming he's seen this done at home I would assume he's heard a lot of screaming in the villages. African girls don't feel less pain just because it's in Africa. They just assume they have to put up with the pain.

He was dead wrong and anyone bringing over such ancient, cruel practices should be told in the strongest terms that we don't do that shit here. But, a monster? I'm not sure we should go that far.

[Recursion]

44. Is FGM ever charged as mayhem?

I have no idea

[LadyHawkAZ]

46. Not sure. I think it has its own legal category now n/t

[davidn3600]

21. According to a study last year...WOMEN routinely get LIGHTER sentences than men

If you want equality here...we'd have to put women in jail for longer times, or reduce times for men.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/men-women-prison-sentence-length-gender-gap_n_1874742.html

[NaturalHigh]

34. Oh wait, now.

You know how those ugly facts can upset some people.

[davidn3600]

49. Oh I know....some people can't accept the truth

Im ready for the flames.

[alp227]

60. O.J. Simpson is sneering somewhere. n/t

[leftstreet]

6. That's a stiff sentence n/t

[mindwalker_i]

23. She only threw it in the garbage disposal becuase

Jeffrey Dalmer wasn't around.

[FreakinDJ]

8. ABOUT TIME +1000

Fuck the giggles and the jokes - we are talking about Sexual Mutilation which takes an Extremely Twisted mind to practice

She needs to be kept away from the general public

[LittleBlue]

10. Just sentence

Hopefully she never gets paroled, we'll have more eunuchs.

[HooptieWagon]

18. Seems reasonable. nt

[NaturalHigh]

20. I read the article...

and didn't see any reason that she did it except she claims she has PTSD. Did she ever say that her husband had abused her, or did she just feel like slicing him?

[Recursion]

26. Would you ask that if the genders were reversed?

(That's not an attack; I found myself wondering the same thing and then trying to decide if I would have in the reverse gender situation.)

[NaturalHigh]

30. Uh...yeah.

If a man had sliced up his wife's genitalia, I would have wondered what his motivation was too. In this story, the lack of an expressed motivation (at least in this article) seems odd.

[BainsBane]

39. That's really the issue

Men are commonly let off without even jail time for battery. When they do go to jail, it's not for life.

[Recursion]

42. True, though mayhem had higher penalties usually

I also have no idea how common male on female mayhem is

[BainsBane]

43. meaning mutilation?

I don't know, but I do know that women are often left with serious dehabilitating injuries.

[Recursion]

45. Literally depriving the king of a soldier

That's the common law origin at least. I think in modern times its any disfigurement.

[BainsBane]

47. I've always thought of this definition

A state of violent disorder or riotous confusion; havoc., which is the 3rd definition on the Free Dictionary list.

From Latin for to main. I should have known that.

[JI7]

52. she did accuse him of abuse, but more likely it was because he was going to divorce her

and i think there was another woman he was going to move in with.

the ptsd thing was them trying to make it as if she had no control over what she did then.

[Recursion]

25. Well... that's an awful story all way round.

Ugh.

[mwrguy]

50. What was her motive?

What did he do to her?

[exboyfil]

56. In some cases an abuse accusation

is sufficient to get out of jail free card (or nearly free). Just ask Mary Winkler of Tennessee (served less than two years for gunning her husband to death while he slept).

Understanding what her motivation was may be important for convicting her and getting her help, but it should be decoupled from evaluating the seriousness of what she did and her punishment for it.

[NaturalHigh]

57. Yes, the Winkler sentence was a disgrace.

At least this woman didn't get a walk like Mary Winkler. I doubt if that will be any comfort to her husband, who is maimed for life, though.

[MFM008]

51. 5-10

mental hospital not life in the can.

[NaturalHigh]

55. For a life-altering mutilation?

Seriously?

[exboyfil]

53. This is from 1986 but it

still shocks me. A man served 8 years for raping and cutting off a girl's arms. He had only been sentenced to 14 years.

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-10-16/news/mn-5628_1_mary-bell-vincent

I think sentencing guidelines in California have changed (at least I hope they have changed).

Follow up - He killed a women in Florida in 1997 and went to death row, but died from cancer before being executed.

[NaturalHigh]

54. I remember that case.

The guy should never have been allowed to walk free.

[NaturalHigh]

58. Link to another article.

She will apparently be eligible for parole after seven years.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/28/justice/california-penis-knifing/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[Gravitycollapse]

59. Excepting actual psychosis, there is no excuse for what she did.

And I think it is likely the case that someone depraved enough to sexually mutilate another person, especially with such careful premeditation, is worthy of permanent incarceration. Although I always believe in parol consideration.