Mary Winkler gets a lesser charge

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted...

Mary Winkler, the minister's wife who killed him point-blank with a shotgun was only found guilty of voluntary manslaughter after being charged with first-degree murder.

The jury deliberated for 8 hours today before finding her guilty of the lesser charge.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,267241,00.html

One of the women who cleans our building was talking about how she knew that he must have abused her or the children because "we Church of Christ women will only kill our spouses if they're hurting our children." She went on to say that's just how they were about protecting their children.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or be frightened.

 

I've said it 1000 times after my experience with and around juries... I've yet to see a group of 12 people make a cognitive decision about what to charge criminals with. Judges to a poor job explaining it and members of juries want to pretend they're on TV.
Smart people become morons real quick.

 

And after years with and around social services, I can say that prosecutors don't always get it right when it comes to family violence situations either.