Replies

Here's my talking points.

It's an outrage that anyone who might be guilty is still walking around free, threatening our very lifes and children.
Lock 'em all up, I mean, what the heck do we have prisons for.
I say -- get the police out there NOW! -- and let's start pulling these wackos and perverts off the streets now.
The current process is corrupt, abysmal.
It only allows liars and abusers another chance to lie.
Get those ~~paddy wagons~~ Department of Corrections prisoner buses out on the streets today. No more waiting around for this sick "liberal" gimmick called due process.
We've gotta sweep the streets clean today!

It's an outrage. And I really don't want your pithy *moronic* comments anymore either. Why do you *idiots* even bother. That's another outrage.

Tune in tommorrow -- we're coming back with yet more outrageous outrages in YOUR town.

--- Bill O'Reilly, outraged.

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One juror says 'I wanted to find this man innocent'

Girl's prints, blood evidence swayed panelist, though

By Kristen Green
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 19, 2002

A juror in the David Westerfield trial said yesterday that he went into the case hoping to determine the accused killer was not guilty.

"I wanted to find this man innocent," Raymond Winkowski III told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I was looking for one piece that just didn't fit."

Raymond Winkowski III, a juror in the Westerfield trial, was interviewed on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor" last night in New York.

Winkowski, the third juror to speak at length about the deliberations, said in a telephone interview from New York City that he considered all the evidence before he decided Westerfield had kidnapped and murdered Danielle van Dam.

For him, the compelling pieces of evidence were Danielle's fingerprints in Westerfield's motor home, her blood on his jacket and her hairs in his bed.

"I couldn't get over the fact that her fingerprints were in the motor home," he said.

Winkowski flew to New York on Tuesday for an interview on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor" last night. The show paid the airfare for the 28-year-old mechanic and his wife and picked up the tab for his meals and his Times Square hotel room, but he wasn't paid for the interview.

His father, Ray, said several television shows called his East County home last night, asking the younger Winkowski to stay a few more days in New York to be interviewed. But after being away from work since June, the father of two young children needs to get back to his job, said Ray Winkowski, who loaned his son several thousand dollars to help him through the trial.

Despite the financial difficulties he experienced, Raymond Winkowski, juror No. 12, said he wasn't in a hurry to end deliberations.

"I even felt in my heart if this takes a month longer I'm going to be here," he said. "I was in no rush to make this decision because I have a man's life in my hands."

Winkowski, like the other two jurors who have spoken about the case, wouldn't explain exactly what happened between 11:45 a.m. and 1:35 p.m. Monday that led the panel to decide Westerfield should be executed.

The foreman sent a note asking the judge for guidance, and then the jurors took their lunch break. After lunch, he sent another note saying they wanted to deliberate further. And then 10 minutes later, sent a third note saying they had reached a decision.

Winkowski said the jury had planned to ask Judge William Mudd to re-read instructions referring to judging Westerfield's character. He wouldn't say why they decided not to ask for the information.

But he said none of jurors discussed the case at lunch.

"There was no talking without all of us being in the deliberation room," he said.

The death penalty deliberations went on for parts of five days because, "everyone wanted to be comfortable with that decision. We wanted to see if the crime fits the punishment."

He said deciding to recommend the death penalty was more about the penalty fitting the crime than deterring child killers.

"It's so horrific," he said. "No remorse shown. No feelings shown."

Winkowski's father said his son was the perfect person to sit on the panel because he knew nothing about the case going into it. If his son reads any part of the newspaper, it's the sports pages, he said.

Raymond Winkowski was even more vigilant when the trial started. When he walked into his father's house, he'd go immediately to the family room and turn off the television.

"He was going to do this thing right," his father said.

Once, after golfing on a National City golf course, the younger Winkowski walked into the clubhouse, looked at the television, and then turned around and left. The Westerfield trial wasn't even on TV, but he was just being cautious.

Raymond Winkowski said he was surprised when he learned after the trial that Westerfield's attorneys had been negotiating a plea agreement on behalf of their client. But he said learning that didn't make him any more confident about the conviction.

"I was comfortable with my decision right there in the courtroom," he said