DiscApp ID # 175790
Article ID # 1412935
Author Mondo Fuego™
Email
IP 74.181.107.253
Date Thu Jan 27, 2011 21:06:36
Subject Getting away with murder ...

http://religionnewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/mary-winkler-update-ms-hoax.html

Mary [Winkler] is the poster child for the sexist double standards of the legal system and culture at large (the "gynocracy"). Basically, she killed her husband in cold blood, and got away with a miniscule sentence and had custody of her kids back in 2 years. Sordid details follow:

On March 22 2006, Mary woke up at 6:15am, walked to her closet, pulled out a shotgun, and shot her sleeping husband in the back while he lay in bed. The shotgun blast penetrated his spinal column and lungs, and he was spitting blood bubbles as he rolled out of bed, asking "Why" and attempting to crawl to the phone. Mary ripped the phone from the wall, and left her husband to slowly die on the floor.

Their three young daughters were in the house with them at the time, and the oldest came in to find out what was going on and what was wrong with daddy. The 8-year old and the 6-year old actually saw their father lying on the floor groaning. Mary hustled the three girls out of the house, fleeing the state, taking the shotgun with her.

While on trial, Mary played the "abused wife" card. The dead husband, of course, was unable to defend himself from the slanderous charge of being a long-time physical, emotional, and sexual abuser. There were no previous court records or police reports of any abuse, and the husband's public esteem as a local minister was spotless. The 8-year old daughter testified at the trial that her father had never been ugly to her mommy. In her first statement to police, Mary specifically denied that her husband had ever been abusive.

Nonetheless, she duped the jury into sympathy. Ten of the 12 jurors were women, and at the first post-trial vote, 9 of those women voted to acquit her of all charges. The voluntary manslaughter conviction was a compromise verdict, and Mary ended up serving less than half a year in prison, with some additional time in a mental institution.

Upon her release, she sued for custody of her three daughters, whom her dead husband's parents had taken custody of. Within a year, she had received custody (apparently with the grandparent's cooperation).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Winkler

Mary Carol Winkler (née Freeman; born December 10, 1973) was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her husband, Matthew Winkler, the pulpit minister at the Fourth Street Church of Christ in the small town of Selmer, Tennessee. She gained national attention because of public speculation about her motives and mental health, allegations of abuse by her husband, her brief flight from the state, and again for the brief length of her jail sentence. In August 2008, Winkler was granted full custody of her three daughters.

Timeline:

1992: Graduated from South-Doyle High School, part of the Knoxville public school system.
April 20, 1996: Married Matthew Winkler, by whom she later had three daughters.
Early spring 2006: Part-time student at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, the same institution from which her husband graduated with a degree in Bible Studies. She was working toward a Bachelor's degree in Education.
March 22, 2006: Shot and killed her husband and fled south with the children.
March 23, 2006: Arrested in Alabama and remanded. (Later extradited to Tennessee.)
August 15, 2006: Released on bond.
April 19, 2007: Found guilty of voluntary manslaughter.[1]
August 14, 2007: Released after spending a total of seven months in custody: five months in a county jail and two months in a mental health facility.[2]
September 12, 2007: Interviewed with American TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey.
September 19, 2007: Won right to supervised visitation with her three daughters.[1]
May 16, 2008: Returned to court to fight for custody of her daughters, [2]
August 04, 2008: Gains custody of her three daughters.

Criminal case
Former Winkler residence in Selmer, TennesseeAccording to police, Mary Winkler confessed to the March 22, 2006 fatal shooting of her husband, whose body was discovered in their home by church members after he missed that evening's service. He had been shot in the back with a 12 gauge shotgun.[3][4]

The couple had been married since 1996. One neighborhood family reported that Matthew Winkler had repeatedly threatened to shoot that family's dog after it strayed onto the Winklers' lawn. Also, other friends, as well as Mary Winkler's family, allege that Matthew Winkler had been abusive to Mary.[5] Winkler maintained this was the reason for the shooting.

After police issued an Amber Alert due to fears of kidnapping, Mary Winkler and the children (Patricia, then 8; Mary Alice, then 6; Breanna, then 1) were discovered in Orange Beach, Alabama. Winkler was placed into custody there and later extradited to Tennessee to stand trial. When asked by investigators about what had happened to her husband, Winkler stated that she and her husband had argued about money and offered "I guess that's when my ugly came out."[6] A grand jury indicted Winkler on Monday, June 12, 2006, accusing her of first-degree murder.

[edit] Bond hearingOn Friday, June 30, 2006: Mary Winkler's bond hearing was held. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent read a statement Winkler gave to authorities in Alabama, where she was arrested a day after her husband's body was found. In it, Winkler says she did not remember getting the gun but she did know her husband kept a shotgun in their home. The next thing she heard was a loud boom. Matthew Winkler was shot in the back as he lay in bed. He rolled from the bed onto the floor, and, still alive, he asked his wife, "Why?" to which she responded, "I'm sorry." When she left the home, Matthew Winkler was still alive in the bedroom, and the phone had been disconnected from its socket. According to the statement, she and her husband had been arguing throughout the evening about many things, including family finances. She admitted some of the problems were "her fault."[7]

Mary Winkler had lost money in what her lawyer said was a scam. She had deposited checks that came from "unidentified sources" in Canada and Nigeria into bank accounts belonging to her and her husband. The checks amounted to more than $17,000.[8] Winkler had become caught up in a swindle known as the "Nigerian scam", which promises riches to victims who send money to cover the processing expenses.[9] She added "He had really been on me lately criticizing me for things — the way I walk, I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I was tired of it. I guess I got to a point and snapped."[citation needed]

Bond was later set at $750,000, an amount that defense lawyer Steve Farese claimed was excessive and "tantamount to no bond at all". A plea for reduction of bond was filed and subsequently denied. Winkler's lawyers, Leslie Ballin and Steve Farese, also filed motions to throw out her confession on a technicality, to require prosecutors to state whether or not they would seek the death penalty (they did not), to give potential jurors an extensive questionnaire, and other motions relating to voir dire.[citation needed]

[edit] TrialOn April 18, 2007, Mary Winkler took the stand in her own defense. She told a jury of ten women and two men that her husband often "berated" her and forced her to wear "slutty" costumes for sex. As proof she displayed a pair of high-heeled shoes and a wig to which those in attendance gasped. Winkler claimed that she only shot her husband accidentally. She said that she went to the bedroom closet and retrieved a shotgun because she wanted to force him to work through their problems. "I just wanted him to stop being so mean," she said through tears. Winkler denied she ever actually pulled the trigger, but told the jury "something went off". She heard a boom, then ran from the house because she thought he would be mad at her.[10]

[edit] Release from jailWinkler made bond on August 12, 2006 and was set for release from jail. Initially, problems stemming from a 1999 suspension of her bail bond company kept her in jail. However, she was able to post $750,000 bond and was released on August 15, 2006, on the stipulation that she live with Rudolf and Kathy Thomsen, friends in McMinnville, Tennessee. The trial commenced on April 9, 2007, with the prosecution resting on April 16. The defense rested two days later.[citation needed]

[edit] VerdictOn April 19, 2007, the jury came back with the verdict: guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Prosecutors had asked that Winkler be convicted of first-degree murder, but the jury settled on the lesser charge after deliberating for eight hours.[citation needed]

[edit] SentencingThe sentencing phase was set to begin on May 18, 2007, but was delayed due to a scheduling conflict by one of the attorneys. On June 8, 2007, a Tennessee judge sentenced Mary Winkler to 210 days in prison for the conviction of voluntary manslaughter. She had credit for already serving 5 months and the judge permitted her to spend up to 60 days in a Western State Mental Health Facility in Bolivar, Tennessee. She was to be put on probation for the rest of her sentence.[citation needed]

[edit] ReactionSome men's rights activists argue the sentence did not constitute justice for the killing of Matthew Winkler.[11] They argued that society sees males only as victimizers and say that the definition of emotional abuse has been expanded to include mere criticism, thereby giving anyone who does not like being criticized justification to commit murder in order to end the criticism. Mary Winkler's family alleges that she was reacting to a combination of emotional, sexual, and physical spousal abuse.[5]

In a 2007 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Winkler stated that her jail time was too short. "There's no amount of time I think you can put on something like this. I was just ready for them to lock the door and throw away the key", she told Winfrey.[12]

On their 2010 album The Big To Do the band Drive-By Truckers included a song entitled "The Wig He Made Her Wear", chronicling the shooting incident and subsequent trial.

A so-called "truth Wizard" who participated in the Wizards Project (a study that identified only 50 people out of more than 15,000 who could identify deception with at least an 80 percent or higher accuracy) who goes by the pseudonym "Eyes for Lies" commented on the case, specifically examining claims made by Mary Winkler under interrogation. At the end of her analysis, "Eyes for Lies" states that "What saddens me is the jurors had their emotions tugged on and they discounted the truth when they heard it with their very own ears". [13]

References1.^ yahoo news
2.^ Wife who killed preacher set free - CNN.com
3.^ Commercial Appeal, Memphis
4.^ Tennessean.com coverage of case
5.^ a b ABC News: Preacher's Wife Killed Husband Because of Abuse, Family Says
6.^ "Slain preacher's wife denies pulling trigger"
7.^ Mary Winkler's bond hearing
8.^ "Matthew Winkler Shot over Money", The Crime Library
9.^ The Crime Library, ibid.
10.^ CNN report of trial testimony
11.^ "Mary Winkler Sentenced To 3 Years, To Serve 2 Months"
12.^ Oprah interview
13.^ "Eyes for Lies Blog: Mary Winkler: My Ugly Came Out". http://blog.eyesforlies.com/2010/11/mary-winkler-my-ugly-came-out.html. Retrieved January, 2011.
[edit] External linksMSNBC: Did preacher's wife get away with murder?
Dateline: The Preacher's Wife
The Winkler Case: A four-part series as Mary's trial begins
Crime Library; Mary Winkler's Arrest
The Memphis Flyer: Shocker in Selmer
Fox News; Mary Winkler's Alabama Confession
CNN News; Wife who killed preacher set free
The Pastor's Wife: The True Story of a Minister and the Shocking Death that Divided a Family, by Diane Fanning, St. Martin's Press, November 4, 2008