The South Dakota Supreme Court is ruling a lower court erred in granting judicial relief to a woman convicted of killing a child.
Donika Rae Gonzalez was found guilty of manslaughter for beating her boyfriend’s four-year-old son to death in rural Buffalo County in 2013. She was sentenced to 130 years in prison, but it was later reduced to 40 years.
Gonzalez filed for relief, arguing her trial was unfair. She was tried in Buffalo County, but due to that county’s small population, the jury pool included people from Brule County.
Gonzalez argued this led to Native Americans being underrepresented in the pool, resulting in her jury not representing the community where the crime occurred.
A habeas court agreed, citing an obscure concept from English common law called “vicinage” requiring medieval courts to draw a jury from the relevant county. The state appealed that decision.
The State Supreme Court disagreed, ruling vicinage didn’t apply in the case, and that Gonzales failed to prove the jury didn’t fairly represent her community.