IN LOVING MEMORY OF OFFICER GREGG WILLIAM WINTERS (END OF WATCH: JANUARY 8, 1991) (COP KILLER EXECUTED IN INDIANA ON JUNE 15, 2007)

Officer Gregg Winters died from his injuries on January 8, 1991. He was shot by Michael Allen Lambert on December 28, 1990 in Indiana. The Cop Killer was executed by lethal injection 16 years later on June 15, 2007. Unit 1012 honors this fallen police and thank God that justice was served.

Officer Gregg William Winters

Summary: Muncie Police Officers were dispatched to a traffic accident and observed an abandoned utility truck. The truck was towed and Lambert was found nearby crawling under a vehicle. Lambert had spent most of the night getting drunk and after telling officers he was trying to sleep, was arrested by Officer Kirk Mace for Public Intoxication. He was patted down and placed into the back of a police car driven by Officer Gregg Winters for transport to jail. A few minutes later, the police vehicle was observed sliding off the road into a ditch. Lambert was still handcuffed in the backseat and Officer Winters had been shot 5 times in the back of the head and neck. A .25 handgun was found laying on the floorboard. It was later learned that Lambert had stolen the .25 pistol from his employer. A demonstration/re-enactment video was introduced into evidence showing the manner in which a gun could be retrieved and fired while handcuffed. A statement by the defendant was admitted despite his .18 BAC.

Molly Winters hugged supporters outside the prison soon after Lambert’s death was announced and said she was relieved it was over. “Justice has been served,” she said. “You look at all the blue lights behind you. It shows you that Gregg has not been forgotten and everything he stood for.” Lambert’s execution came about nine hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, without commenting, his final appeal. Gov. Mitch Daniels on Wednesday had denied his clemency petition.

Terry Winters, the slain officer’s brother and deputy chief of the Muncie Police Department, witnessed the execution under a state law that took effect last year giving relatives of murder victims that right. “It was not an easy thing, but his death was a lot smoother than what my brother’s was,” Terry Winters said of watching the lethal injection. “His punishment for that crime was death and it’s been carried out. And that’s the end of it.”

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.wthr.com/story/26330183/2014/08/20/victims-families-on-the-death-penalty

Victims' families on the death penalty

By Rich Van Wyk, WTHR reporter - bio | email

INDIANAPOLIS –

The Marion County Prosecutor was emotional as he announced the man accused of killing Ofc. Perry Renn would face the death penalty if convicted.

Major Davis, Jr., is accused of opening fire on Ofc. Renn with an assault rifle on July 5 after Renn responded to a 911 call. The shootout also left Davis badly wounded.

There are a lot of factors in the decision to go for capital punishment, even in a case where the victim is a police officer. While the death penalty can bring closure for some victims' families, it can also mean a decade or longer court battle, dragging out the pain of losing their loved one.

"As any parent knows, they they want their child's life to mean something," said Spencer Moore, the father of Ofc. David Moore, who was killed in the line of duty three years ago by 60-year-old Thomas Hardy.

At the time, Spencer and Jo Ann Moore decided prosecutors should seek the death penalty. Hate, he said, was never a factor in their decision.

"You have to avoid the hate if at all possible, because hate eats you up inside then there is no answer to hate....Being a law enforcement family, we felt it was necessary to send a message to anyone who would to want to do harm to anyone: there is the ultimate consequence," explained Moore.

But when Hardy wrote the Moores a letter asking for forgiveness, mercy and life in prison without parole, the family trusted their faith and agreed - a decision Moore said he has never regretted.

"It wasn't a relief in the sense that 'I'm not going to be killing somebody, I'm not going to be involved in it.' It was a relief in the sense that 'I'm not going to put my family through all of this'."

"This" being a trial and years of court hearings - a judicial ordeal Molly Winters did go through; an ordeal that lasted almost 17 years.

She was a young mother in 1990 when her husband, Muncie police officer Greg Winters, was murdered in the front seat of his patrol car.

Back then, life without parole was not an option. If not sentenced to death, killer Michael Lambert could have been free in 30 years.

"Citizens of Indiana need to know if they make that decision, then I have to be willing to give up my life," said Winters.

Winters gave up much of her life attending the trial, then more than a decade of appeals and hearings.

"It wasn't about officer Greg Winters killed in the line of duty," Winters said. "It's what this perpetrator deserves, what can we do to make life easier for this perpetrator while he's on death row."

PHOTO: Ofc. Greg Winters' family and friends (1990 WTHR file photo)

Lambert was put to death 16 years after the killing. Winters and family members were inside the prison during the execution and she said it was a relief.

"No more court dates. Finally, Gregg can rest in pease because justice was served. My children and I can have peace about us."

The Moores and the Winters found themselves in similar, tragic circumstances. Despite taking different roads, both appear to have found peace, and both said the death penalty decision was among the most difficult of their lives.