Dear Friends:
I’m sure by now that most of you have heard about the verdict in the case of the Minister’s wife who shot and murdered her husband on last year. Mary Winkler apparently “snapped” and decided that killing her pastor, husband, Matthew Winkler was the appropriate thing to do given her testimony during her trial. Mrs. Winkler testified that her husband criticized her every move, made her watch porn films with him, and then have sex with him immediately after the movie was over.
As a direct result of her testimony, the jury came back with a verdict of guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder as the prosecutor sought. There was mixed emotion about this verdict. Was it fair? Was it justice? Did the jury let a cold-hearted killer go practically free given the light sentence of 3-6 years she is now facing? Well, I’m sure that there are other questions that all of us could come up with, and I’m equally certain that we could debate this matter for weeks on end. However, I do have a take or two about this matter that just might surprise you. As I observed this unfortunate situation unfold, several things became painfully apparent to me:
First, as soon as the news got out that a minister’s wife shot her husband, there was an overwhelming sense of sympathy and compassion for this woman by the townspeople and the media alike. She was treated very delicately by the prosecution’s office and the Judge in the case did the unthinkable by allowing her to be released on bail. I immediately thought to myself, “when does that ever happen to a minority?” If that had been a poor Black woman or another poor ethnic person, there’s no way that bail would have been set!
Second, When the information started leaking in the media that Mary Winkler had actually “confessed” to the killing, people immediately began to denigrate the Pastor; after all they asserted, “surely he must have done something to push his wife off of the edge that she would do something like that.” However, it was interesting that some folks from the church where Mr. Winkler served as Pastor began to offer praise for their Pastor and re-affirm him as a loving husband, doting father, and a tremendous Pastor and Preacher for their church.
Something just didn’t add up. While Matthew Winkler’s parents affirmed their son’s character and good will, they also supported their daughter-in-law. I must admit that I was deeply moved by that gesture as I’m not sure if I could extend myself in that way to my child’s killer.
Third, here are the specific things that I find troubling about this case and I hope that you will hear my heartbeat on this matter. The jury was looking for a reason to not convict this woman of first degree murder! As Mrs. Winkler testified very slowly and methodically, she seemed to grip the hearts of everyone in Court including the prosecution. She testified that her husband criticized her, made her wear “high heel shoes”, took the checking account from her after she was scammed of $17,000 dollars.
She painted him as a cruel, abusive brute who made her kill him. However, the jury apparently never paid a bit of attention to the testimonies by Church members, people of the community, and relatives that painted a completely portrait of Matthew Winkler that showed him to be an honorable man. It is my contention that the jury needed to acquit this woman probably because she had children, and because she appeared as the “victim”. While we may never know what really happen inside the Winkler’s household, I don’t believe for one moment based on Mary Winkler’s testimony that her husband deserved to be murdered in cold blood!
Was justice served? I think not. But I know that there is a judge who will someday make this and other unjust situations right. This is an important case for our judicial system because contrary to what we believe, there are different standards of justice depending on one’s race, sex, and socio-economic status. Whenever thugs see this kind of thing, they feel justified in committing crimes simply because in their minds the justice system is flawed and it plays favorites and is unfair.
To give a few closing and hopefully thought-provoking commentary, I wonder would the verdict have been the same if the defendant was a black woman who had shot her husband in the back? What if Mr. Winkler had done the exact same thing to Mrs. Winkler? Would the verdict have been the same? In this case, we will never know of course. However, let’s not close our eyes and ears to the so-called” greatest judicial system in the world,” we might just see and hear some things that will change our minds. That’s my take, what is yours?
Blessings!
