Wave of Castrations Sweeping North Carolina

The Winstom-Salem Journal reports today that a local male nurse has been arrested for the 'malicious castration and assault on a handicapped person'.

Steven N. Rodriguez of Zionville is being held on $500,000 bond. Authorities have not released any information that would indicate a motive.

Despite the notoriety of the Lorena Bobbit story many years ago, many people are still surprised to learn that there is a law on the books for 'Malicious Castration'. In fact, this is not the first case of Malicious Castration to be brought in North Carolina.

In State v. Parker, 350 N.C. 411, 516 S.E.2d 106 (25 June 1999), Parker was found guilty of malicious castration. This case established a new precedent as Parker's victim had predeceased the castration.

Even more recently, on May 9, 2006 Marty Lane Self of Kings Mountain, NC was arrested for castrating is step son during an altercation that include Self, his step son Keith Bowen and Tiffany Bowen, Keith's wife. Marty Self was charged both in the castration as well as for assault, assault on a female and second-degree tress passing. Alcohol was not reportedly a factor. The Star reports that calls to the home later to question the events were met with a response from a woman at Self's home that stated, "It's nobody's business why he was arrested."

Now, North Carolina doesn't just leave off with 'malicious castration'. In case you are wondering, there is an illegal form of non-malicious castration. In March of 2006, 3 Charlotte, NC men were charged with performing illegal castrations. They were reportedly running a sadomasochistic "dungeon" according to the Associate Press and later reported through MSNBC. The actual law on the books is Section 14-29. 'Castration or other maiming without malice aforethought' and its been on the books in North Carolina since 1831. [Note. My own ancestors left North Carolina for Kentucky during the 1830's. I'm starting to understand their concerns more clearly.]

Going back to December of 2004, Robert Johnson, reportedly a member of the gang the 'Blood,' received 15 years in prison for shooting off the genitals of a fellow 'Blood.' The jury reached the conclusion that 'malicious castration' was not appropriate and settled on 'nonmalicious castration' as Johnson had shot is victim in the thy and the bullet had exited said thy, castrating his victim in the process. No Forethought ~ no Maliciousness?

In North Carolina, Malicious castration is a class C felony, while non-malicious castration is only a class E felony. To put this in perspective trafficking in cocaine (400 grams or more) or Trafficking in marijuana (10,000 pounds or more) falls right in between as a class D felony.

So all this begs the question, why all the castrations in North Carolina? A Google search on the topic, yields the first two page results listing items about these cases and the large majority are in North Carolina. Is North Carolina above the national average for this type of crime? Is the rest of the country burying castrations in other states?

I don't know the answer to these questions, but my wife and I are not travelling to North Carolina this Memorial Day weekend as we usually do. I look forward to remaining whole throughout the holiday weekend.

update - We ended up travelling to NC afterall halfway through the weekend. We got to thinking about it and realized that you can't let a terror campaign stop you from enjoying life, no matter how much its trumped up in the news. I'll let you know if we survive the weekend . . .