Opposing Viewpoints – There are really two victims in Mary Winkler murder trial

Why did Mary Winkler sneak up behind her sleeping husband and shoot him in the back? What could have possibly been her motive?

If the jurors, and those across the nation following the Mary Winkler murder trial on television, have really been listening, from the opening statement to the hours of testimony that followed, Mary has been telling them exactly why she did what she did. She has said over and over again that she suffered years of emotional and mental abuse from her controlling husband and finally just snapped.

?My ugly came out,? she said. Indeed it did.

While domestic abuse has been used more than once as a defense in a murder trial, it has usually been physical abuse reported, which elicits sympathy from many juries, and rightfully so.

But this is not the case with Mary Winker. She has never claimed her husband beat or physically abused her, just that he berated and belittled her until she just couldn?t stand it anymore.

So the real question here is whether this kind of abuse qualifies as mitigating circumstances. I submit that it does. Mary felt powerless. She felt herself slowly fading away, becoming less and less a person, essentially mentally and emotionally dead. At some point she decided to fight back and end the abuse, just like the women who have reacted to years of physical abuse.

For Mary, words hurt just as much as fists, eventually driving her to commit this heinous act.

This doesn?t mean she shouldn?t be convicted, but perhaps it should play into the extent of her punishment. Let?s not forget there were really two victims here.