When William Gardner, upon being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, went off in the courtroom with an outburst – in which he called his attorney, J. Toney, a racist and Judge Stephen Mock a “klansman” – he certainly set the world of Yolo County ablaze, as evidenced by the provocative headline from CBS 13: “Yolo County Murderer Calls Attorney Racist During Sentencing, Judge ‘Klansman’ After.”
Here’s the thing – like many court systems in the country, Yolo County does have issues that are concerning and in need of addressing. At the top of my list in Yolo County is actually an issue that Mr. Gardner brought up. More generally it is that the vast majority of defendants in the Yolo County system are people of color – primarily Latino – and the vast majority of jurors are white.
There is a disconnect in the jury pool itself that is exemplified and exacerbated by cases in which primarily the prosecutors weed out minority members of jury panels to produce, in most cases, all-white or nearly all-white juries.
Worse yet, Yolo County does not appear to keep records of their jury pool so that we can analyze such data. That is a problem, but unfortunately William Gardner has no legs to stand on here – and therefore his claim actually serves to undermine the very serious problems we face with race and racism locally and nationally.
Mr. Gardner was allowed before his sentencing to address the court. He used that time to rip his own attorney and call him a racist who conspired with the prosecution. He claimed that he never had a fair trial and that his defense attorney called him an “N-word.”
While I may often be sympathetic to the defense, there is not much doubt in this case. Mr. Gardner placed over 1000 calls to Leslie Pinkston over a 24-day period as he awaited trial on charges that he stalked and threatened her at her home in Winters after she ended the relationship.
He terrorized her – harassed, stalked and threatened via social media, through email, phone and in person. While relationships are complex and she played some role by providing him the means to bail out of custody, he would eventually plot out the murder, lie in wait, and ambush her.
There are plenty of cases where there are gray areas – questions about complicity, and questions about whether it was provoked or self-defense. There are cases of mistaken identification and many cases where we question whether what was committed was the crime charged or even a crime at all.
This is not one of those cases.
I would like to say this is a case where the system worked – but that would be a lie. The truth is, this is a case where it is clear that we still cannot do enough to protect people who are victimized in bad domestic relations and situations of stalking.
It is a case that illustrates the power of victimization that, even as Leslie Pinkston tried to protect herself, she ended up aiding the person who would end her life.
And it is a case that illustrates that the authorities did not pay enough attention to the warning signs that were right there in front of them.
However, in all of these matters the victim is not William Gardner but Leslie Pinkston.
The last several days we have spent time discussing race relations in particular as it relates to Ferguson and the police treatment of minorities. There are real issues at stake – unfortunately when the William Gardners of the world attempt to exploit those issues and the media acts as willing accomplices, then it undermines legitimate complaints.
There are many legitimate complaints in Yolo County, and while I would stop short at calling the whole county racist, I would suggest there are many things we could do better in this county.
None of these issues are present in the William Gardner case, and I fear that his raising the issue in this manner will undermine legitimate concerns and play into the hands of those who wish to deny that we have any problem.
The person I feel most sorry for in this case is J. Toney. J. Toney is a well respected attorney in Yolo County. While not a public defender, he is a conflict counsel attorney.
Conflict counsel is a part of the very robust public defense that exists in Yolo County. When indigents are charged with crimes, they are typically assigned the public defender’s office who represents them. However, there are times when there are conflicts of interest that arise.
Most often these conflicts arise in multi-defendant cases where the defendants might have some points of common defense, but it is also conceivable that part of their defense will be to move culpability toward another co-defendant. To have a single office represent each defendant would create a potential for a conflict of interest.
Yolo County therefore contracts with a conflict panel – a group of private attorneys who can represent each of the co-defendants to the best of their capacity. They are paid on a contractual basis with the county.
J. Toney is a longtime attorney and was once a prosecutor, now being a defense attorney. He is well-respected by both his peers as well as the judges. In fact, I recall during a rather tricky procedural hearing that Judge Fall once in part deferred to Mr. Toney’s legal interpretation.
Mr. Toney took on a case that was of high notoriety and, unlike truly private counsel, he did not have the luxury of picking and choosing his clients.
Mr. Gardner had a lot of things going against him – he left a long trail of evidence in threats and calls. He was clearly tied to the crime. And finally – he was an unsympathetic defendant.
In the end, this case was about the actions that Mr. Gardner committed and what the proper punishment was for them – not about race.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
David wrote:
> the vast majority of defendants in the Yolo County system are people of color –
> primarily Latino – and the vast majority of jurors are white.
Most (over half) the people I know have never served on a jury and just toss the stuff that comes in the mail in the trash. Of the “people of color” I know it is close to 90% and I know many of them who openly mock their white friends for “wasting time” going to jury duty. I read something a while back that OVER 80% of the jury summons’ that get mailed out in LA County get no response. It might be time to do something so most jurors are not older white people who feel called to do their “civic duty” with a couple people of color that show up every now and then…
P.S. It would have been a bigger story if a black guy in jail did NOT blame “racism” (or a judge that was a “klansman”)…
I’ve never seen that happen in Yolo County, so I dispute your claim about the bigger story.
David wrote:
> I dispute your claim about the bigger story.
Do you just “dispute” it or do you actually have a link to something from the Yolo County courts that says most people in Yolo County who are mailed a jury summons actually show up in court?
Doubting that you know anyone of colour well enough to know what they do with their mail and calling bullsquat on your claims about only older white people showing up, since at least in Sacramento county, in the last forty years, when I have sat on several juries, none of which were all anything, except serious about our task, I just have to say, “What an shining example of civic responsibility.” Your last sentence tells us all about who you are.
;>)/
First question, are Yolo County juries fairly representing the demographics of the county? I have participated in five Yolo County trials as a juror over the last 20 years, and each time I felt like the demographics of the jury fairly represented the demographics of the county.
Second follow up question, if you believe that juries are more white than is the demographics of the county, then why is that if not the result of a cause similar to what SOD explains?
so you felt that juries were about half white and the other half latino and asian? that’s the demographics of yolo county. that’s not my experience in the hundreds of jury trials i worked in this county.
I don’t know where you get your data, but you need to find a new source.
From the US census, Yolo is about 50% non-Hispanic white, and about 30% Hispanic, 13.5% Asian and 3% black.
So in a jury of 13 we would have 6.5 white jurors, 3.9 Hispanic jurors, 1.8% Asian jurors, and .39% black jurors.
And adjusting for the language issue with the Hispanic population, yes, this is a fair representation of the juries I have participated on.
that’s what i said, half white and the other half essentially asian and hispanic.
i’ve almost never seen a yolo county jury answer close to only half the members being non-white. almost always its one or two non-whites IF ANY.
Hispanics can be white, are you forgetting that? If you include white Hispanics the number is 74%,
Gardner sounds like your garden variety college student. Race, race, race, and he threw in a KKK reference!
I think you’re going to be hearing a lot more of that now in the wake of Ferguson. Playing the race card along with playing the victim.
What are we going to hear in the wake of Staten Island? or Cleveland?
Don, in either of those incidents do you believe they were killed do to the cops being racists?
Barack Palin, do you think that blacks are treated more harshly by police in general than people of other races?
No, I don’t think that. What I do think is a bigger deal is made out of those incidents by the race baiters. I see you dodged my question.
You don’t think black suspects are treated more harshly by police?
I don’t know if Officers Pantaleo or Loehmann are racists.
In the Staten Island incident I don’t believe for a second that any racism was involved. That said I do believe the cop that had the choke hold should’ve been charged with manslaughter or something of the sort.
As far as the Cleveland incident goes you do know that the cops were never informed by the dispatcher that it was a kid and that he might be brandishing a play gun. When they pulled up the kid pointed the gun their way and they responded, it was only a matter of seconds. One cop reported that he thought the victim was 20 years old.
Jury voir dire has certain rules in place, in every county, set by rules of the Court and case law. Each side gets a set of peremptory challenges based on their questioning and have to show cause for excluding a juror. A jury of one’s peers does not necessarily mean they have to be of the same race or socioeconomic background. I would never find myself on trial, but if I was, I would not expect the jury to be made up of 12 40 year old middle class white guys. The jury pool is made up of those that have a driver’s license or are registered voters. And relies on those that actually respond to the summons. It would be nice if everyone showed up. Or if their first response upon receiving the summons was not “how do I get out of this”.
Be careful in making assumptions that this system is slanted to get white jurors and assuming they are racist and out to convict minorities despite what ever evidence is presented. I understand the sentiment right now is just to assume race is the determining factor for all white people’s decisions, but that is dangerous.
This site is tough on Yolo County because Yolo County is tough on crime. And that’s fine, does not hurt to have a devil’s advocate in your ear. But be very careful making it about race.
Related to this, there is historical evidence that a more black jury would excuse a black man for brutally murdering a white woman.
The only travesty here is that he did not get the death penalty.
yolo is probably one of the toughest in the state on crime – everything is charged at least initially as a penalty, it has one of the highest incarceration rates in the state which is remarkable given where it ranks in crime.
“But be very careful making it about race.”
i’ve been a trial attorney for over 30 years – a lot of that time in yolo. the prosecution certainly has the right to select a jury and use their preemptory challenges and dismiss for cause, but at some point this becomes less an issue about race per se and an issue about getting a fair trial. you end up with a lot of white, upper middle, college educated, and retired jurors who are not exactly “peers” with the defendant. they can’t relate to their life experiences. does that matter when it comes to applying the law to the facts which is the job of jurors, absolutely it does.
So you advocate racial quotas for jury selection?
How about this… DON’T MURDER PEOPLE, BUT IF YOU MUST… CONSIDER THAT YOU WILL GET A TOUGHER JURY IN YOLO COUNTY?
I am completely fine with that message.
And I absolutely believe that is the defendant had been white and the victim black, all other things being equal, the outcome would have been the same.
do i advocate racial quotas for jury selection?
no. i’m not sure i have an answer but i do think it’s a problem. my bigger problem is less in this case where the evidence was clearcut and straight forward and more in a lot of the closer calls. the problem with the message “don’t murder people but if you must, consider that you get a tougher jury in yolo” is what if they’re innocent? how do they not do something that they didn’t do in the first place?
It also matters because such juries are less able to tell when witnesses are untruthful – their life experience is too limited. Eliminating social workers and others with broad experience with a wide variety of people is a good example of curtailing a jury’s insight.
For sure, we need more “social sciences” folks on juries… but be careful… if they start doing that, they may stop the current pattern of essentially banning engineers and scientists from juries (they tend to analyse and think for themselves). We need to make sure juries are made up of those full of empathy, and willing to strongly weigh emotive arguments, unconcerned with facts and analysis. Great plan!
Could the lack of “non-white” juries be a result of language barriers?????? I know as a lifelong Yolo resident that there are many many non-english speaking residents… In order to serve on a jury you must have a clear understanding of the English language… If you cant understand it, read it, or speak it, you are almost certain to not get on the jury….
most non-english speakers are not going to end up in the jury pool. when they do, they get removed for cause. my experience is that’s a relatively small number. more are dismissed during the voir dire proecess.
In my second jury selection I was called for, the time I was actually in the courtroom being selected for a jury, there were several non-English speakers on the jury, and all of them were being dismissed for cause until they did not have any more left.
They did not have an interpreter during this because of the multiple juries being chosen that day.
“There is a disconnect in the jury pool itself that is exemplified and exacerbated by cases in which primarily the prosecutors weed out minority members of jury panels to produce, in most cases, all-white or nearly all-white juries.”
I am assuming the jury pool is selected randomly from those who register to vote. People of color, if they want fair trials, need to register to vote and be willing to serve on juries. Both prosecution and defense have the same # of opportunities to weed out jurors who they don’t like.
“The last several days we have spent time discussing race relations in particular as it relates to Ferguson and the police treatment of minorities. There are real issues at stake – unfortunately when the William Gardners of the world attempt to exploit those issues and the media acts as willing accomplices, then it undermines legitimate complaints.”
Yes, people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do exactly the same thing, playing the race card for every situation even if not warranted, as does the mainstream media, for their own personal gain.
“None of these issues are present in the William Gardner case, and I fear that his raising the issue in this manner will undermine legitimate concerns and play into the hands of those who wish to deny that we have any problem.”
I would argue the Vanguard has been guilty of the same race baiting at times when inappropriate, bringing in the issue of race where none exists.
“In the end, this case was about the actions that Mr. Gardner committed and what the proper punishment was for them – not about race.”
Exactly.
I agree 100 % and have said so many times.
for instance?
This very article…(does even one person think Gardner is going to jail just because he is black? Yet David still needs to fan the flames of “racism”…
no he didn’t, he stated very clearly that gardner’s race had nothing to do with the trial.
I did not allege racism in this article. I stated quite clearly that I did not buy Mr. Gardner’s complaint. I did say there was a legitimate issue about jury composition, but did not attribute that to racism.
The “ferinstance that comes to my mind is the recent discussion on “mass incarceration”. Calling a largely individual process (one conviction per criminal) “mass” anything seems to be avoiding the real issue, a la Ferguson.
I found a good phrase that explains this and a lot of people on this fine forum of ideas: they “explain” and “understand” the issue behind the actions (criminal behavior, racism, looting and vandalism) but it comes out sounding like there is no fault or accountability of the perpetrators. It sounded to me like some of you defend the behavior as acceptable, with my emotional response in kind.
I realize you all want justice, and even though many of you think the punishment is inappropriate or biased, I realize you are trying to explain so the rest of us can understand your point of view, or belief systems.
Thank you,
≈
I don’t understand that remark, and so I might be offended by it.
Frankly
“I don’t understand that remark, and so I might be offended by it.”
And would that make you a “victim” of obfuscation …… or just dense ? ; )