Getting Away With Murder, With Pity to Spare

Since when did murder, or destruction of livelihood become perfectly legal as long as the excuse was good enough? The catch is claiming to be a woman scorned.

Next on Oprah's couch is Mary Winkler. You remember her, right? She's mentioned right here in the archives of BadBoyScout.com, the rural preachers wife who shot her sleeping husband, in the back, then took off for several days evading authorities. The reason for the ice-cold murder? Well, poor Mary says the husband forced her to wear hooker shoes during sexy time, and he complained she spent too much. No, he didn't beat her and wasn’t in the process of doing so when killed. And while Mary wasn't empowered enough to leave the man, she certainly had the iron nuts to blow him away..in his back...while he lay sleeping.

The punishment? Three months in jail and a turn on Oprah who, for my money, will likely and somewhat strategically portray her as a heroine, or at least something less than she really is; a murderer who got away with it.

Add that case to the growing number of teachers, mostly female, who walk away from prosecution and/or jail time after molesting their male students.

Right here in Massachusetts, barely more than a month ago, Dr. Ann Marie Gryboski avoided not only prosecution, but jail time and any charges for shooting and killing her husband. According to area media, all Gryboski needed do after the initial arrest was claim abuse. Neighbors who lived across the street from Gryboski and her husband, including a 30-year-long next door neighbor both said they'd never heard nor suspected any abuse in the marriage and that Gryboski had talked of leaving her husband prior to his murder. Apparently death benefits pay better than alimony.

The REAL scary thing here is that, according to neighbors and the media, local police as well as the prosecutor did not even speak to neighbors or friends. That's right folks, she simply SAID it was abuse and thereby, for some odd reason, felt there was a moral justification to blow the man away. No in-depth investigation, they took her word for it. Case closed.

The Ohio woman, Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby who left her child in a hot car to die for 8 hours only two weeks ago escaped prosecution and formal charges being filed as well. "She made a mistake" says the prosecutor. And how can you or anyone else forget Crystal Mangum, the woman in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. who merely pointed a finger and caused a nationally honored college lacrosse coach to lose his career along with six other college men who lost job offers and suffered expulsion in their senior year? The men have finally been proven innocent, the coach still hasn't won his job back but Crystal Mangum walks free today.

Can you imagine any of the above scenarios had they been committed by men? Of course justice periodically overlooks the evil of them as well, only not so frequently nor forgiving by the public. In a society where a woman can simply point a finger in accusation and destroy a life, or murder a human being and escape even the most routine investigations, is there any room left for mercy of those who really might be innocent? Why is this happening and why aren't Oprah, the national media or our elected officials talking about it? Something is seriously wrong here.

Posted by JD on September 12, 2007 12:36 PM