Testicle & Testimony in the Mary Winkler Case
For some reason, I got hooked on the Mary Winkler case. She's the woman who killed her minister husband by shooting him in the back while he was sleeping. Perhaps it was the religious angle or the fact that I never figured out how Mary could afford an expensive defense.
At the end of her trial, the jury found Mary guilty of manslaughter, not murder. She faces a sentence of three to six years, but some experts say she'll be released. Currently, she's fighting to regain custody of her three young children.
Mary's jury consisted of 10 women and 2 men. One of the men later said that he felt she should have been conficted of a more serious crime than manslaughter.The number of women weighing the evidence caught my attention because throughout most of history, women did not serve on juries. The legal system was male dominated. We see this even in the term "testimony" which some etymologists link to "testicle," a word of Latin origin. The idea was that when a Roman gave evidence in court, he placed his hand on his testicles as a sign that he was telling the truth. Where a woman in court would have placed her hands is up for speculation.
Actually,, there is no evidence that Romans used their testicles this way. There is an Old Testament reference to Jews following the practice, but nothing connects the Biblical text to Roman culture.
Back to Mary, who testified that her husband had abused her mentally and sexually. This defense has some plausibility because one can't imagine a wife shooting her husband for no reason at all. But Mary also claimed that she had taken out the gun not to shoot her husband only to force him into having a conversation with her. Now, telling a story like that takes balls.
At the end of her trial, the jury found Mary guilty of manslaughter, not murder. She faces a sentence of three to six years, but some experts say she'll be released. Currently, she's fighting to regain custody of her three young children.
Mary's jury consisted of 10 women and 2 men. One of the men later said that he felt she should have been conficted of a more serious crime than manslaughter.The number of women weighing the evidence caught my attention because throughout most of history, women did not serve on juries. The legal system was male dominated. We see this even in the term "testimony" which some etymologists link to "testicle," a word of Latin origin. The idea was that when a Roman gave evidence in court, he placed his hand on his testicles as a sign that he was telling the truth. Where a woman in court would have placed her hands is up for speculation.
Actually,, there is no evidence that Romans used their testicles this way. There is an Old Testament reference to Jews following the practice, but nothing connects the Biblical text to Roman culture.
Back to Mary, who testified that her husband had abused her mentally and sexually. This defense has some plausibility because one can't imagine a wife shooting her husband for no reason at all. But Mary also claimed that she had taken out the gun not to shoot her husband only to force him into having a conversation with her. Now, telling a story like that takes balls.
Labels: balls, Mary Winkler, murder, testicle, testimony, trials
posted by Murray Suid at 12:27 PM
2 Comments:
Testimony and testicles, that’s golden. If every word had as colorful a history I would not be tempted to make them up.
p.s. In my religion when people express their belief they are giving their “testimony.” Boy “Testimony meetings” would be a whole lot more exciting if the ancient practice was applied.
Spitzer,
What a clever response. Now that you have brought it to my attention, I think about the related "testiment" as in the "Old Testiment." But I wouldn't have gone there without your observation. Thanks.
Murray
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