Yvonne Wanrow
Biography
Yvonne Wanrow, also known as Yvonne Swan, is a Colville Native American woman prosecuted in Spokane after she shot William Wesler in August 1972, asserting self-defense and protection of children. A jury convicted her of second-degree murder and first-degree assault on May 13, 1973. The conviction was reversed, and the Washington Supreme Court’s 1977 decision became a landmark concerning women’s circumstances in the law of self-defense. On April 26, 1979 she pleaded guilty to manslaughter and second-degree assault under an agreement resulting in suspended punishment, five years of probation and a year of community service. The complete case history reports only three days actually jailed, immediately after her arrest; she remained free on bond during the appeals.
The Dessie Woods defense pamphlet discussed these women’s self-defense campaigns in the context of racism and sexual violence. Its broad comparison and appendix are advocacy summaries and are not used to establish a new acquittal, release day or custody duration. The Story of Dessie Woods, second printing, June 1978, original PDF page 12. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/Dessie%20Woods/513.DessieWoods.TheStoryofDessieWoods.pdf#page=12
At an April 21, 1978 Milwaukee benefit, Wanrow discussed her self-defense prosecution and appealed for public support while the Washington Supreme Court considered whether another trial should occur. The paper reported a forty-year original punishment; that nominal characterization is retained as an attributed contemporary report and does not replace the case-history account or actual three days jailed. The Militant, May 19, 1978, PDF page 28. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1978/4219/MIL4219.pdf#page=28
Biographical sources
Yvonne Wanrow, also known as Yvonne L. Swan, was born in 1943 in Inchelium, Washington. The sources reviewed do not establish an exact birthday or a death date.
Donna Coker and Lindsay C. Harrison’s case history, based on the appellate record and participant interviews, dates the first jury verdict to May 13, 1973, correcting the legacy biography’s 1974 year. It explicitly distinguishes three nights in jail followed by bond from years spent litigating while free. Its conclusion dates the final plea agreement to April 26, 1979 and reports probation/community service rather than renewed prison confinement. The same prosecution is updated, not duplicated as a new case; no release day is calculated from a three-night report.
Coker and Harrison, The Story of Wanrow, PDF pages 18, 22, 43 (printed 230, 234, 255).
