The Associated Press
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Molly Winters felt a sense of justice as she walked out of the Indiana State Prison early today after learning the man who fatally shot her police officer husband more than 16 years ago had been executed.
Winters said she felt she had been set free when she was told that Michael Lambert had died by lethal injection for killing Muncie police Officer Gregg Winters.
“Because when Lambert put those five shots in the back of Gregg’s head, I said that as long as I live I will be at every court hearing and I will do everything I can do every step of the way to make sure that one day Gregg will rest peacefully and that there will be justice — and it’s done,” she said.
Lambert fatally shot Winters on Dec. 28, 1990, while Winters was driving him in a police cruiser to the Delaware County Jail on a charge of public intoxication. Another officer had patted Lambert down but did not find the gun he had in his pocket.
Winters died 11 days after he was shot.
About 30 family members and friends of the Winters family were inside the prison for the execution, but Gregg Winters’ brother, Terry, was the only family member of the victim to witness the execution.
Terry Winters, the deputy chief of the Muncie Police Department, said it wasn’t easy to watch.
“But his death was a lot smoother than what my brother’s was, and his punishment for that crime was death and it’s been carried out, and it’s the end of it,” he said.
Two of Lambert’s friends and two of his lawyers also witnessed the execution. They did not talk with reporters afterward.
Lambert, who did not give a final statement, was pronounced dead at 1:29 a.m. Fort Wayne time today.
The execution drew the biggest crowd in support of a victim since 1994, when Gregory Resnover was executed for killing Indianapolis police Sgt. Jack Ohrberg.
Along with the 30 people inside the prison, more than 50 supporters — many of them police officers from Muncie and various departments in northern Indiana — stood outside the prison in support. As they awaited word of the execution, they held blue glow sticks to represent the “thin blue line” Gregg Winters was on the night he was killed.
Some said they were not there to show their support for the death penalty but to show their support for the Winters family.
About 25 people who oppose the death penalty also held a demonstration outside the prison. There were no problems between the two groups.
Lambert’s execution came about nine hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, without commenting, his final appeal. Gov. Mitch Daniels denied Lambert’s clemency petition.
Lambert’s clemency hearing two years earlier at the prison led to a memorable moment when Molly Winters and Lambert’s mother, Sue, hugged after Michael Lambert asked the state Parole Board to recommend clemency for him. Molly Winters said after the execution Friday her thoughts were with the Lambert family.
“We’ve been thinking about his family as well because we know too well the suffering that they are feeling now and the grief they are going through,” she said. “We’ve dealt with it all for almost 17 years.”
Winters talked to reporters as she stood between her two sons, 19-year-old Kyle and 17-year-old Brock.
“It’s just more relief that this part’s over even though it’s still not going to bring Dad back,” Kyle Winters said.
Brock Winter’s eyes welled up when he was asked how he was feeling, but he did not comment.
The Rev. Tricia Teater, a Buddhist priest from Chicago, said she spent Thursday afternoon with Lambert, praying, mediating and chanting. She joined the protesters in arguing that the death penalty is not a solution.
“It is a very sad thing for this society to keep spinning the cycle of violence and creating more victims and more pain,” she said.