A Sham of Justice...

The Mary Winkler story is another case that has me worried about our so-called legal system. She was the Ministers wife who shot her husband in the back with a shotgun while he was in bed and was arrested 340 miles away with her 3 kids in the family minivan. She claims he abused her emotionally, physically and sexually. She claims she didn't mean to fire the gun, it just went boom. The jury didn't convict her of the main charge; First Degree Murder, but instead convicted her of Voluntary Manslaughter. The jury included a Baptist minister and woman who said she had been a victim of domestic abuse. Mary Winkler was sentenced to 3 years in prison, but was released after serving 5 months in prison (mostly her time awaiting trial) and 2 months in a mental care facility. Now she's petitioning the court to get her kids back. And tomorrow she's slated to be on Oprah!

I guess I have a couple of questions... How many ministers with 3 kids (ages 2, 8 and 10) keep a shotgun in the bedroom closet that is loaded and ready to be fired? Or did she have to accidentally load the shotgun too? She claims he threatened her with the shotgun regularly. Isn't it strange she would have such easy access to it and be the one to use it? The wife claims the marriage was abusive, but nobody else including the kids heard or saw any signs of abuse. What level of abuse is required? Does snoring constitute abuse? Note to self: make sure trigger lock keys are hidden far from guns secured in gun safe. She spent 2 months in a prison mental health facility. Now she's all right? Sorry ... it all just seems so unreal.

That's what gets to me. The precedent it sets. For whatever reason she shot her husband in the back with a shotgun and less than a year later is out of prison. She claims it was accidental. She claims years of mental and physical abuse. Her word against his ... oh wait, he's dead. After 2 months in mental care she is ready to take her kids back. "Her" kids whose father she murdered and left to bleed to death on the floor while she herded her kids out of the house. She wouldn't let them call 911... I guess all I can say is that, damn, her attorneys were good and must have coached her well... My bet is that if her husband had killed her with the same claims, same evidence, same testimonies and same courts he would have been in jail the rest of his life.