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TV Judge
Rules Man Can't Keep
Amputated Leg He Found in Barbecue
By The Associated Press
New York Lawyer
November 2, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. Nobody needs
two left feet.
Even though a North
Carolina man found an amputated human leg inside a smoker he bought
at auction, he can't keep it, Judge Greg Mathis ruled on his
television show in an episode that aired Thursday.
Shannon Whisnant had
refused to return the leg to its owner, telling the judge he wanted
to build a museum and charge people $10 to look at the limb, which
had been cut off 2 to 3 inches above the knee.
"You're not getting that
leg. I'm not giving you the man's leg," Mathis told Whisnant.
John Wood, whose left leg
was amputated after a 2004 plane crash, joked to the judge about
losing his leg twice. He had kept the leg and the cooker inside a
rented storage space. When the South Carolina man couldn't pay the
bill, the items were auctioned.
He said he wanted his
severed leg so that it could be cremated with him when he dies.
The judge dismissed Wood's
claim for emotional distress caused by media coverage of the case
and ordered him to reimburse Whisnant $5,000.
The men had agreed to have
their case settled by Mathis, and they signed papers that his
decision was legally binding.
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