Richmond's Ashley
Williams case at crucial juncture
By
Phil Wilayto
RICHMOND,
VA – The May 18 court hearing for Ashley Williams, the young
Richmond mother fighting to retract her guilty plea in
connection with the “starvation” death of her 2-year-old son
DeSean, lasted all of two minutes. The result, which has not been
reported by other local media, brings the case to a new and critical
juncture.
In
the latest twist in a saga that is raising serious questions about
the fairness of the Richmond courts system, Circuit Court
Judge Richard T. Taylor
declined to rule on a request by Williams to be represented by
Pauline M. Ewald, the outspoken court-appointed attorney whom Taylor
had removed from the case 14 months ago. Taylor
had previously stated that he would not preside over any case in
which Ewald, who had been mounting a serious defense for Williams, is
an attorney.
Judge
Taylor is African-American, as is Williams. Ewald is of European
descent.
Instead,
Taylor referred the motion to the next judge in the court's rotation
schedule. If that judge allows Ewald to represent Williams, Taylor
stated he would remove himself from the case altogether. If the
request is denied, the case will go back to Taylor, for
sentencing.
A
hearing on the motion has been scheduled for June 4.
Taylor
did not announce his decision in the courtroom, which included 15
Williams supporters. Instead, in an apparently unusual move, he
announced that copies of his decision could be obtained from the
court clerk's office, “in a few minutes,” and then abruptly left
the courtroom.
Williams,
27, of Richmond's working-class Fulton neighborhood, was
arrested on July 6, 2009, and charged with felony child neglect and
second-degree murder. When DeSean died
exactly two months earlier, he
had weighed just 14 pounds. According to the National Center for
Health Statistics, a boy DeSean's age typically weighs between 23.75
and 34 pounds.
Basically,
Williams was accused of allowing the DeSean to starve to death.
On
Jan. 11, 2010, the charges were
nol prossed (withdrawn by the prosecution), because the medical
examiner's office had not yet issued an opinion as to the cause of
death, and was not likely to issue one before Williams'
right-to-a-speedy-trial date was to expire.
In
other words, Williams had been indicted for murder before the state
even knew why her child died.
When
the autopsy report was completed, it listed the manner of death as
“inconclusive.” And yet, on June 13, 2010, the charges against
Williams were reinstated.
Meanwhile,
Williams' other
three children – all of whom were healthy – were taken from her
home and put into foster care.
In
Virginia, court-appointed public defenders assigned felony cases are
paid just $445,
the lowest rate in the entire country. As
a result, public defenders typically do not spend a lot of time,
energy or other resources on their clients.
In
contrast, to refute the claim of child neglect, Ewald had arranged
for several medical experts to testify in Williams' defense. These
included Dr. Cyril H. Wecht of Pittsburgh, a nationally known
forensic pathologist.
After
examining the autopsy report, Dr. Wecht concluded that there was no
evidence of neglect or abuse. Rather, he found, the child most likely
had died from DiGeorges Syndrome, a genetic disorder that prevents
the body from properly digesting food, resulting in a loss of weight
so severe that death can result.
As
reported in the current issue of the Black-owned Richmond Free Press,
Williams' three sisters also have children who exhibit symptoms
similar to DiGeorges,
a fact that would seem to support Wecht's conclusion.
Further,
Williams had been regularly taking DeSean to a medical doctor, trying
to find out what was wrong with her child. At the time of the final
visit, about a month before his death, DeSean had weighed just 18
pounds, raising the question of the competency of the medical care he
was receiving, not whether his mother was properly caring for him.
But
in March 2011 – before Ewald could present her evidence in court,
Judge Taylor had her removed from the case. The reason given was
complaints by prosecutors and Ewald's co-counsel, Devika E. Davis,
that Ewald had offered Dr. Wecht inappropriate financial inducements
for his testimony. However, Ewald has produced an affidavit from Dr.
Wecht stating he had not been offered any such inducement.
After
Ewald was removed as Williams' co-counsel, Davis
reportedly persuaded Williams to plead guilty to the charge of
involuntary manslaughter, without going to trial. In Virginia,
involuntary manslaughter carries a penalty of between five and 40
years in prison.
Davis
later was quoted
in the Free Press as saying she did not want to put Dr. Wecht on the
stand because “His opinion, in my view, was not based on science.
The scientific evidence was questionable.”
Dr.
Wecht, the former medical examiner for the Pittsburg area, is also a
former president of the American Academy of Forensic Science. He was
selected as a forensic consultant for the Los Angeles County
Coroner's Office in regard to the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy
assassination. He currently heads the board of trustees of the
American Board of Legal Medicine.
After
Williams pleaded guilty, on Nov. 28, 2011, the next step would have
been sentencing. But on April 17, 2012 – the day before Williams
was to be sentenced, King Salim Khalfani, executive director of the
Virginia State Conference NAACP, along with one of Williams' sisters,
visited Williams at the Richmond City Jail. During this visit,
Williams said she wanted to withdraw her guilty plea, have the case
go to trial and be represented by Ewald.
At
the court hearing the next day, Williams made her requests to Judge
Taylor, saying “I'm not guilty, and I was led to believe the guilty
plea was in my best interest, but it's not.”
As
she spoke, some 30 activists packed the small courtroom, including
Khalfani, City Councilman Marty Jewell and former City Councilman
Sa'ad El-Amin, as well as members of the Defenders for Freedom,
Justice & Equality, the Flying Brick Library and activists with
Occupy Richmond.
Also,
at the hearing, Davis asked to be removed from the case, saying,
without explaining her reasons, that she believed continuing to
represent Williams could open her to judicial action.
Taylor
removed Davis and appointed a new public defender,
Cary C. Bowen, a
white male.
The
next hearing in the case is scheduled for 9 a.m., June 4, Room 302,
in the John Marshall Courts Building, 400 N. 9th
St. in downtown Richmond. As stated above, if Williams' request to be
represented by the counsel of her choice is turned down, her case
will be returned to Judge Taylor, for sentencing.
The
Defenders are urging the public to attend this critical hearing.
Phil
Wilayto is editor of The Virginia Defender. (www.DefendersFJE.org)
He can be reached at DefendersFJE@hotmail.com.
