To my mind, Mary Winkler, who killed her husband, was a victim of battered woman syndrome. It is a severe mental health condition that usually develops in females suffering from long-term domestic abuse (Gotter, 2021). During the trial, the Tennessee preacher’s wife claimed that her partner had been abusing her both sexually and physically for a long time. Matthew Winkler allegedly criticized her for everything she did; he could scream at her, strike at her, and blame her for every setback.
Moreover, Mary’s attorneys raised a defense on the fact that her husband had a twisted libido. For instance, Matthew forced her to submit to unusual sex acts at any time, wear sex costumes, and watch porn (Krajicek, 2019). The defense also reported that their client was depressed and suffered from PTSD. This abusive treatment made her uncomfortable and eventually resulted in voluntary manslaughter as a way to leave the destructive relationships.
Nevertheless, there would be no justice if Mary Winkler had been just set free. There is no doubt she killed her husband out of emotions and anger without prior intention. Although Mary claimed that she does not remember how she pulled the trigger, the woman pleaded guilty to Matthew’s death and delivered a hollow-hearted statement to apologize before sentencing. She also admitted that she caused some of the marriage problems by herself.
For instance, Mary was embroiled in the Yahoo Boys scam that drained her money with the help of fraudulent checks (Krajicek, 2019). What is more, the preacher was shot and left to die by her the following morning after their argument on financial issues. Thus, Mary could kill her husband voluntarily either because of the stress of the Nigerian scam case or the abuse she suffered from him. In this case, the murder was classified as voluntary manslaughter that requires the punishment of up to ten years in prison. Mary’s mental condition and responsibility for the crime were mitigating factors that reduced her sentence to 210 days.
References
Gotter, A. (2021). Battered woman syndrome. Healthline. Web.
Krajicek, D. J. (2019). God don’t like ugly: The preacher’s wife and her sweetheart deal. New York Daily News. Web.