Dec. 31, 1977: State of Washington to retry Wanrow

 STATE OF WASHINGTON TO RE-TRY YVONNE WANROW

The State of Washington has announced its decision to re-try Yvonne Wanrow for fatally shooting a known child molester and wounding his companion. The new trial is set for September 26, 1977 in Spokane County Superior Court.

Wanrow, a Colville Indian, was convicted of second degree murder, and first degree assault on Mother's Day 1973. Her conviction was overturned by the State Court of Appeals because a tape recording of her telephone conversation with police immediately after the incident was used at her trial. The prosecution used the tape recording to support its theory that the shooting was deliberate by claiming Wanrow's voice seemed calm. The prosecution appealed the reversal and the case was argued before the State Supreme Court in February, 1976.

The Washington Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling on the inadmissibility of the tape, and also reversed on the ground that the trial judge's instruction to the jury concerning self-defense did not "make clear that the defendants actions are to be judged against her own subjective impressions, and not those which a detached jury might determine to be objectively reasonable."

The defense team has filed a motion to dismiss Wanrow's case in the interests of justice. The motion states that the deceased, William Wesler, known as "Chicken Bill" for his proclivity for young children, would not have been killed had the police responded to requests for protection. Wesler had been identified as having raped Wanrow's babysitter's seven-year-old daughter (in whose home the shooting took place,) and had attempted to molest Wanrow's eight-year-old son and another child on the afternoon before Wesler's death, Knowing this, and knowing that Wesler, a former mental patient, had attempted to break into the babysitter's home, the police refused to take any action.

The motion continues: "Yvonne Wanrow's case is an example of the problems of women and children facing sexual and physical assault who have not received meaningful protection from the police or the judicial system. The unresponsiveness of law enforcement and judicial machinery has left increasing numbers of women without any choice but to defend themselves and their children against male assailants, often even their own husbands. Indeed, the Wanrow case illustrates the serious consequences of police inaction in the area of child molestation specifically. The Wanrow case dramatized and tragically foreshadows the issue of the need for better police protections for the victims of sexual assault."

Church leaders in Spokane have filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the motion to dismiss. Their brief states: "Yvonne Wanrow was a woman caught up in a web of events which inevitably led to violence and might have been averted had she been able to rely on the protection of society...If Wesler had been taken into custody, even temporarily, or if the police had promised surveillance of the neighborhood in order to reassure the women they were being protected, the tragedy would have undoubtedly been averted."

Wanrow is presently out on bail and living on the Colville Reservation in Inchelium, Washington. Her defense group needs support, financial, political, and otherwise. She is represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, 853 Broadway, 14th Floor, New York, New York 10003. For further information, contact: Beth Bochnak, (212) 674-3304.