Jury selection will decide Winkler case
Make no mistake, there?s more negotiating going on in the jury room than in the sales room of a used car lot, except in the case of juries, it?s not the price of a car but the price of a person?s life.
Since the talk of the town will be on the Mary Winkler case until there?s a verdict, I figured I may as well weigh in on the subject myself and discuss the most important part of the case, the part which will determine the entire outcome.
No, it?s not her alleged confession, nor some peoples? assertion she was the victim of abuse, nor is it her alleged cigarette smoking at a local restaurant or the heaps of gifts showered on her by well-meaning individuals. Instead, the most single important part of the Winkler case will come down to the very beginning, with the selection of the jury which begins Monday.
According to the court?s agenda, an entire week has been set aside in Selmer to choose a jury, meaning we likely won?t be seeing live testimony on Court TV until some time the following week.
The fact that jury selection could take a week is not surprising when you realize McNairy County is relatively small when compared to even Warren County. The hometown to the late great Sheriff Burford Pusser has about 24,000 residents. Now, consider you have to find a jury of around 16 (12 main jurors plus alternates if jurors cannot sit the entire trial) to hear the case in a county which is 84 percent rural, where everyone pretty well knows everyone else.
Being from Warren County, with a population of about 39,000, which is also predominantly rural (maybe not so much as McNairy County), we all know how quickly gossip and speculation spreads in a place where everybody knows everybody. It can quickly cause people to form opinions. Just look how polarized Warren County is about Ms. Winkler even though the crime happened more than three hours away from here and involved a couple who lived here around three years. It would be somewhat difficult to get a jury here, let alone the place where the media has been swarming since the crime happened.
With that in mind, both the prosecution and defense know the case can be won or lost before the opening statements are even given. For this reason they will be very careful in getting to know each prospective juror, that is if they are any account as attorneys, with the knowledge one strong juror can sway an entire verdict.
I?ve noticed in watching juries over the years that there?s usually three or four strong personalities on a panel with the remainder being what I would call followers who can be swayed in the jury room by one of the aforementioned leaders. I?ve even seen strong alpha males push their will on entire juries.
This is very important if the case is a close one as we often come into a negotiation phase where jurors try to settle somewhere in the middle on a verdict. As I?ve said before, the law often has little to do with what a jury decides, since they are looking for their own comfortable medium when it comes to a verdict.
Just look at the poll in our paper. As of yesterday afternoon, voluntary manslaughter was leading in the list of verdicts returned by our readers (without hearing the evidence I might add).
Bottom line is that if a jury sympathetic to Ms. Winkler is drafted, prosecutors will be fighting an uphill battle to get any significant conviction. Meanwhile, the defense could be fighting a similar battle if a law-and-order jury is allowed to be seated.
While the evidence will play a big role in Ms. Winkler?s living accommodations for the foreseeable future, the makeup of the jury will be the most important factor since they are the ones who will vote their conscience when all the arguing is done.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].