Jurors Acquit Man in Severed Penis Dispute

John Bobbitt was acquitted Wednesday of sexually assaulting his wife after a jury rejected her argument that she cut off his penis to retaliate “at the very thing that harmed her.”

“I’m thankful to the jury. They believed me,” Bobbitt said. “I just want to get on with my life.”

Bobbitt’s wife, Lorena, will be tried Nov. 29 on a malicious wounding charge. The same prosecutor will handle that case, and he wants to use the testimony against her. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the same as her husband had on a charge of marital sexual assault.

The jury of nine women and three men deliberated about four hours Wednesday before returning the verdict. Bobbitt, 26, jumped from his chair and hugged his lawyer, Gregory Murphy, then buried his face in Murphy’s shoulder as Bobbitt’s aunt shouted: “Oh Lord, thank you!”

In closing arguments, both sides had focused on inconsistencies in the couple’s stories of what happened the night of June 23.

“Why did she cut his penis off? Something happened and I submit to you something sexual happened that offended her and drove her over the edge,” prosecutor Paul B. Ebert said. She “struck out at the very thing that harmed her, the thing that hurt and she severed it.”

Lorena Bobbitt, 24, testified that her husband woke her, pinned her to their bed, yanked off her underwear and raped her.

Bobbitt testified that he initiated sex and his wife did not resist. Murphy said Lorena Bobbitt concocted a story of sexual abuse because she was angry over the dissolution of their four-year marriage.

“The prosecution tells you that two wrongs don’t make a right. Well, that’s right,” Murphy told the jury. “The emasculation of John Bobbitt is the first wrong. The second wrong is the fabrication of facts in this case.”

After cutting off her husband’s penis, Lorena Bobbitt testified, she fled their apartment and threw the severed organ out her car window. Police found it in the grass and it was reattached in a nine-hour operation. Bobbitt is recovering but has not yet regained sexual function, doctors said.

Murphy listed several points where Lorena Bobbitt’s testimony contradicted other witnesses or her previous statements.

He said she gave conflicting statements about where she was several days preceding the alleged attack, and that she took scissors to her underwear to make it appear they were ripped off her body.

A crime lab scientist said the tear appeared to come from force, but an expert witness for Bobbitt said the underwear was cut.

Following the verdict, Ebert said he brought the charge against Bobbitt because “I believed her and I didn’t believe him.” He said Bobbitt’s acquittal will have no bearing on Lorena Bobbitt’s trial, and that he plans to use her testimony against her. The final decision rests with the judge.