Discussion (Course --- Digital Forensic Evidence)

 Mrs. Mary Winkler Murder Case.

Preamble

The modern approach of forensic of investigation is a combination of what we inherited, learned, documented from the past leading to rewarding and challenging life-time investment. Forensic investigation involves searching, penetrating, and analyzing items from several different fields of life, demands well-synthesized record-keeping and hard to accomplish. It is imperative for forensic investigator to understand the basic techniques of collection and preservation of evidence and cannot be completed with comprehensive and fundamental understanding of forensic science.

Pre-Assessment:         Mrs. Mary Winkler Murder Case.

In March 2006, Mrs. Mary C. Winkler, the wife of a Pastor in Tennessee town, shot and killed her husband, Rev. Matthew Winkler, in the back with a 12-guage shotgun while he slept. Throughout the ensuing trial, the suspect Mrs. Winkler, along with family and friends, claimed that her husband had mistreated her, and mistreatment had inspired the shooting. After the shooting, Mrs. Winkler was arrested in Orange Beach, Alabama, where she had fled with her three young daughters, and extradited to Tennessee. On April 20, 2007, Mrs. Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and a grand jury indicted her on charges of first-degree murder.

When Mrs. Winkler took the stand in her own defense two days before her conviction, she told the grand jury of her alleged abuse at the hands of her late husband, with whom she had frequent arguments. She asserted that the shooting was an accident and that she had actually been trying to reconcile with her husband at the time of the murder and further claimed that although the gun had discharged, she could not remember having pulled the trigger.

She alleged that her flight to Alabama affirmed her determined attempts to get away from her angry husband. Winkler was ultimately convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced on June 8, 2007, to 210 days in prison, 5 months of which she had already served. She spent some time in a Tennessee mental health facility and then served the remainder of her sentence on probation. Eventually, she was awarded custody of her children.  At times, law recognizes, under circumstances most individual can be justification for the taking of human life (Montaldo, 2017).

Scenario 1

Mrs. Winkler, along with family and friends, claimed that her husband had mistreated her, and mistreatment had inspired the shooting

Question 1

1:1     As an investigator, do you passionately believe that Mrs. Winker, is justified in killing her husband?

Scenario 2

Rev. and Mrs. Winkler had three young daughters and she was awarded custody of her children. Based on overwhelming digital evidence in the case.

Question 2

 2:1.            As an investigator, do you ardently support awarding Mrs. Winkler the custody of the family three children?  

2:2.             If you were one of the three children, present an active plan of action to safeguard such dreadful, threatening, and bad-tempered episodes in the family?

Casey, Eoghan (2011). Digital Evidence and Computer Crime. Elsevier

            Science. Kindle Edition; San Diego: CA

Montaldo, Charles (2017). “The Trial of Mary Winkler.” Thought Co: Tennessee.