Yvonne Swan

Yvonne L. Swan (; born 1943), also known as Yvonne Swan Wanrow, is an American activist from the Colville Indian Reservation. A Sinixt, she is a Native American and is part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Under the surname Wanrow, she is known for her 1970s murder trial with the State of Washington, which initiated proceedings against her after she shot and killed a White man who was allegedly trying to rape her toddler nephew on August 11, 1972. While she was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison for second degree murder and first degree assault, an appeal saw her instead being convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to probation, thus leading to her becoming a cause célèbre among feminists and the American Indian Movement. Her case eventually reached the Washington Supreme Court, where its outcome had far-reaching effects on women's self-defense and the law, and the manner in which juries interpret the behavior of a defendant, the legality of recorded conversations, and considerations for victims of sexual assault. in 1943, in Inchelium, Washington, a city on the Colville Indian Reservation.

State of Washington v. Wanrow State of Washington v. Wanrow was a murder case that drew national and international attention. In August 1972, while at the home of a friend in Spokane, Swan shot two unwanted visitors, killing one man and injuring the other, in what she claimed was self-defense. After speaking to the police by phone, she was arrested and charged with second degree murder and first degree assault. A jury found her guilty and she was sentenced to 20 years. On appeal, the conviction was reversed on a number of errors by the trial judge. The prosecutors appealed to the Washington Supreme Court, where the reversal was upheld. The landmark Supreme Court opinion had far-reaching effects on women's self-defense and the law. Days before the retrial was set to begin, on April 26, 1979, an agreement was reached with the State. Swan pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of manslaughter and second-degree assault, for which she received five years of probation and one year of community service. Her incarceration over the seven years of court proceedings amounted to the three days she spent in jail after her initial arrest.

Hooper was concerned for the safety of her home. Her house was located in a largely industrial area, with few other residences and poorly lit at night. Seven months earlier, her young daughter had been sexually assaulted, evidenced by a sexually transmitted infection she contracted, but the daughter had refused to identify her assailant. A few nights earlier, Hooper had spotted a man crouching near the house. And on two nights before, her bedroom window screen had been slashed.

Results The January 7, 1977 Washington Supreme Court ruling in State of Washington v. Wanrow was an important victory for the feminist cause of gender-equality before the law. In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court, sitting en banc, declared that Yvonne Wanrow was entitled to have a jury consider her actions in the light of her "perceptions of the situation, including those perceptions which were the product of our nation's long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination." Before the Wanrow decision, standard jury instructions asked what a "reasonably prudent man" would have done, even if the accused was a woman; the Wanrow decision set a precedent that when a woman is tried in a criminal trial the juries should ask "what a reasonably prudent woman similarly situated would have done."

Over the course of her State v. Wanrow years, Swan became an active speaker for the women's movement, which raised funds on her behalf. The American Indian Movement helped Swan, too, and took advantage of the opportunity to highlight unequal treatment of Native Americans by the criminal justice system. Ellen Earth, a spokesperson for the Yvonne Wanrow Defense Committee, stated that the committee wanted to "make the trial last as long as possible" in order to '[reeducate] the jury about Indians". Swan stated, "The trial would not have taken place had I been an affluent white woman who killed an American Indian. Instead, after one week, I was convicted by an all-white jury on May 13, 1973 (Mother's Day) for killing a known child molester. I had heard about Wesler's background as a sex offender the night before the shooting, but was not allowed to bring up the information at trial. The police tape played a role in bringing about the conviction — the jury was allowed to hear it two times."

In October, 2020, at age 76, Swan took part in a demonstration in support of Sinixt aboriginal land rights in British Columbia, Canada. The group, comprising mostly Confederated Tribe of the Colville Reservation members, including Swan and other Sinixt descendants, gathered at the Washington border, overlooking the crossing into BC. The gathering marked the final appeal of a 10-year-old aboriginal rights case, being heard at the Supreme Court of Canada. The defendant, Sinixt descendent Rick Desautel, had shot an elk on a ceremonial hunt on what he claimed was Sinixt land in BC. The Canadian government held that no such right existed. The government had declared the Sinixt tribe legally extinct after the last known member in Canada died in 1956. Swan said her participation remembered her Sinixt heritage, and was part of the larger struggle to restore native homelands.