Yvonne Wanrow - The Trial

The Trial

Unable to convince her public defenders to fight for her, Wanrow initially pleaded guilty. Later, following the counsel of a new attorney, she changed her plea to not guilty by reason of temporary insanity and self-defense. The prosecution alleged that Wanrow was not in any danger and that she took the law into her own hands. This argument relied on ethnic stereotypes the jury would have been familiar with from the media, and the verdict may have been influenced by militant actions by the American Indian Movement, which was covered in a negative light in Spokane. In 1973, Wanrow was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree assault. Defense attorney Eugene I. Annis appealed the ruling on eleven counts of judicial error. In 1975, the appeals court reversed the conviction and ordered a retrial. They found that:

• the jury was not sequestered and an article of Wanrow's earlier guilty plea appeared in the evening paper. When Wanrow's defense moved for a retrial, it was denied after the jury was questioned as a group whether they saw the newspaper and they said no,
• the recorded confession was used as evidence in violation of the law,
• the judge's use of masculine pronouns while reading the law and instructing jurors predisposed them to an interpretation of the law that did not account for the necessity of weaponry in inter-gender conflicts, especially considering the fact that Wanrow was handicapped by a broken leg, a cast, and crutches at the time,
• the presiding judge had not allowed expert testimony that would have provided necessary cultural background on the Colville Indian culture, and,
• the judge did not read jurors a recently-enacted law that dictated that they not interpret self-defense murder cases on the basis of whether the defender was actually in danger of his or her life, but only whether they believed themselves to be in danger.

In 1976, the prosecutors in the case, Donald Brockett and Fred Caruso, petitioned the Washington Supreme Court against the ruling, but it was upheld in 1977. During the Supreme Court appeal, Wanrow was represented by attorneys Elizabeth Schneider of New York's Center for Constitutional Rights, Susan B. Jordan of San Francisco, and Mary Alice Theiler from Seattle. The case was remanded back to Spokane Superior Court for retrial. Prior to the scheduled 1979 trial, the prosecution offered a plea bargain—if Wanrow pleaded to manslaughter and second-degree assault, they would drop the weapons charge (which carried a mandatory five-year prison sentence) and they would not recommend prison. After lengthy discussions with her attorneys, which also included William Kunstler, Wanrow learned that self defense was included in manslaughter, and she agreed to plea to the reduced charges. On April 26, 1979 following an all-day mitigation hearing, Judge Harold Clark sentenced her to the maximum 30 years and suspended all but five years, which she was to serve on probation. In lieu of one year jail time, he ordered 2,000 hours of community service, which she served by counseling alcoholics and teaching culture to Indian students on her home reservation.