THE TIMES POLL : Majority Say Denny Verdicts Too Lenient

Most Los Angeles residents say the verdicts handed down in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial were too lenient and most believe jurors based their decisions on fear for their own safety and of further civil unrest, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

But the survey found a wide division of opinion between black and non-black residents over whether justice was achieved. A majority of blacks said they were satisfied with the verdicts, while most whites and Latinos voiced unhappiness with the outcome.

The jury’s decision to acquit Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson on the most serious charges has shaken Angelenos’ confidence in the jury system, the poll found. Most people interviewed also said they oppose pursuing federal charges against the men.

Williams was convicted of felony mayhem and four misdemeanor assaults while Watson was convicted of one misdemeanor assault.

The responses to the poll paint a generally pessimistic mood in the city, finding residents dissatisfied with living conditions, gloomy about race relations and preoccupied with crime as their top concern.

The Times poll of reaction to the verdicts in the Denny beating case surveyed 1,279 Los Angeles residents from Friday to Sunday. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

In general, the Denny verdicts seem to have produced greater division across racial lines and within racial groups than the first Rodney G. King beating trial, where not guilty verdicts for four Los Angeles police officers by a Simi Valley jury produced overwhelming opposition across a broad spectrum of racial and ethnic groups.

Here, blacks agreed with the Denny verdicts by a bare majority--51% to 38%--while 28% of whites agreed and 67% disapproved. Latinos were the least supportive--23% agreed with the verdicts, compared to 66% who objected.

Although opinion was divided along ethnic lines, there were significant numbers within each racial group who dissented. Almost 2 in 5 blacks expressed unhappiness with the verdicts, about 3 in 10 whites favored them and nearly 1 in 4 Latinos approved of the outcome.

“I don’t think it was fair the way they selected these people to be responsible for everything that was going on,” said poll respondent Margo Hinson, a 34-year-old clothing manufacturer. “The jury decided and I don’t think they were too lenient.”

But many residents thought the videotape of the attack was conclusive and should have produced sterner justice.

“Just look at the video and you can see they are guilty,” said respondent Gerusalem Ortiz, a 45-year-old machine operator from Huntington Park.

Ortiz voiced the views of a sizable minority of respondents--33%--that the verdicts would encourage more crime and street violence in the city.

“A lot of people will see that the jury did what it did because of the fear of violence and people will use that to their advantage,” Ortiz said.

But opinion was divided. While only 11% of residents thought the verdicts would discourage crime, 52% said they were not likely to effect the amount of crime one way or the other.

The vast majority of residents--67%--appear to believe that the Denny jury was motivated by fear for their own safety and the potential to cause civil unrest in the city. Wide majorities of whites and Latinos--66% and 75% respectively--believe fear prompted the jury decisions while 53% of blacks agreed.

“Look at the deliberations and all of the problems they had that came out into the open,” said respondent Randy Ortiz, a 19-year-old student. “The jury was definitely scared or they wouldn’t have come to the decision they did.”

Nevertheless, residents generally could muster little sympathy for the Denny jury, with 52% saying they disapproved of their handling of the case and 35% approving.

The numbers seem to reflect an overall negative view of the jury system in Los Angeles. In light of the verdicts in the Denny trial, 63% said they had little confidence in the system, while 32% said they had a great deal or a good amount of confidence.

The Denny trial also seems to have further eroded confidence in the criminal justice system, alienating non-blacks while doing little to improve the dim view held by blacks.

Citywide, 51% of respondents said the outcome made them less confident in the criminal justice system; the view was held by 62% of Latinos, 50% of whites and 27% of blacks. Only 4% of all residents and 9% of blacks said their confidence was increased as a result of the verdicts. Among all of those who agreed with the verdicts, 27% still said they had less faith in the system, and only 10% more.

In the one relatively hopeful sign yielded by the poll, most residents indicated that the level of anger produced by the trial is substantially lower than that after the Simi Valley verdicts.

Seventy-three percent of residents said they were angered by the King verdicts when asked the question today, while 24% said they were not troubled. But just 41% were angered over the Denny decisions, while 55% said they are not very angry at all. A Times poll conducted shortly after the Simi Valley verdicts yielded a similar finding, with 76% saying they were angry.

The relatively low level of anger may speak to emotional toll extracted from the city by the King and Denny trials.

Despite their misgivings with the verdicts, 54% of residents said they believe the city should lay the Denny episode to rest and do not favor retrials or bringing civil rights charges against the two Denny defendants. Thirty-eight percent favor bringing new charges.

By comparison, in a Times poll conducted in May of 1992 after the Simi Valley verdicts, 87% of those polled favored bringing federal civil rights charges against the four LAPD officers.

“I think there should be no retrial,” said Brian Weiss, a 32-year-old Westside resident who responded to the poll. “What would be the ground? If we start retrying every case, we would never end. I think there are major differences between the two cases.”

The level and number of charges brought against the two men accused of beating Denny also appear to have been problematical for many Los Angeles residents, despite the fact that the majority--63%--call the verdicts too lenient.

Only 40% believe Watson should have been convicted of attempted murder, with 28% saying no and 32% voicing uncertainty. A greater number--45%--thought Williams deserved to be convicted of the most serious charge, with 21% disagreeing and 32% unsure.

Even the question of who should shoulder blame for the Denny attack provoked doubt, with many residents willing to see other circumstances as important.

Thirty-eight percent thought Williams and Watson bear responsibility for the beating, but a sizable minority--27%--thought the two defendants were caught up in a general sense of outrage in the black community over the King verdicts, while 22% faulted the LAPD for not moving fast enough to quell the violence.

Significantly, only 20% of blacks laid primary blame on the two defendants, with 54% of whites and 27% of Latinos holding the two responsible.

Still, 68% of Angelenos rejected the notion that the King verdicts and the rioting should have been taken into consideration in the Denny case. Eighty-two percent of whites and 61% of Latinos rejected the suggestion. Blacks were split, with 44% saying the King verdicts should be taken into account and 46% saying they should not.

The poll indicates that not much healing has occurred in the 18 months since rioting engulfed the city. Just 21% of respondents think the city is on the mend, 25% think things are getting worse and 51% say they see little change.

Seventy-nine percent of residents--including vast majorities of whites, blacks and Latinos--graded race relations in the city as not so good or poor, while only 20% saw any positive signs. A sizable minority--43%--said relations between the races are likely to get worse, while 41% said they will stay about the same.

Still, for many Los Angeles residents, hope seems to spring eternal, with 61%--including 77% of blacks, 60% of whites and 52% of Latinos--saying they are at least somewhat optimistic that conditions will improve. Only 32% were pessimistic about the future.

“People want to get on with the business of life, to get back to work, back to the issues of education and the economy,” said Philip Lee, 68, a retired resident of Southwest Los Angeles. “I think we’re on our way to healing now.”

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Poll interviewed 1,279 adult residents of the city of Los Angeles, by telephone, from Friday to Sunday. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the city. Random-digit dialing techniques were used so that listed and non-listed numbers could be contacted. Interviewing was conducted in English and Spanish. Asian-Americans were interviewed and are included as part of the overall results, but the sample is too small to be broken out separately. Results were weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and labor force participation. The margin of sampling error on the total sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For subgroups the error margin may be somewhat higher. Poll results also can be affected by other factors such as question wording and the order in which questions were presented.

THE TIMES POLL: Opinions in the Denny Case

Most Los Angeles residents say the verdicts handed down in the Reginald O. Denny beating trial were too lenient, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll, and most believe jurors based their decisions partly on fear of further civil unrest. The survey also found wide divisions of opinion between black and non-black residents over whether justice was achieved. However, even among blacks a sizable minority disagreed with the verdict.

Generally speaking, do you agree or disagree with the jury’s verdicts on Damian Monroe Williams and Henry Keith Watson in the Denny beating trial?

OCTOBER, 1993

Total Anglo Black Latino Agree 30% 28% 51% 23% Disagree 62% 67% 38% 66% Don’t know 8% 5% 11% 11%

Do you agree or disagree with the Ventura County’s jury verdict for the four L. A. police officers found not guilty of using excessive force against Rodney King?

MAY, 1992

Total Anglo Black Latino Agree 12% 20% 3% 6% Disagree 82% 71% 96% 89% Don’t know 6% 9% 1% 5%

Would you say that you are personally angry or not angry about the verdicts handed down on Watson and Willaism in the Reginald Denny beating trial?

OCTOBER, 1993

Total Anglo Black Latino Angry 41% 48% 19% 44% Not angry 55% 50% 76% 50% Don’t know 4% 2% 5% 6%

Would you say that you are personally angry or not angry about the not guilty verdicts in the trial of the four police officers accused of using excessive force against Rodney King?

MAY, 1992

Total Anglo Black Latino Angry 76% 69% 87% 79% Not angry 23% 29% 12% 20% Don’t know 1% 2% 1% 1%

Has the outcome of the Reginald Denny beating trial increased or decreased your confidence in the criminal justice system in Los Angeles?

Total Anglo Black Latino More confidence 4% 3% 9% 4% Less confidence 51% 50% 27% 62% Had little effect 40% 46% 53% 28% Don’t know 5% 1% 11% 6%

In making its decisions in the Reginald Denny beating trial, do you think the jury was motivated more by a fair and sensible consideration of the evidence or were they motivated more by fear their own safety and cause civil unrest in the city?

Total Anglo Black Latino Fair/just 19% 19% 38% 12% Fear 67% 66% 53% 75% Neither 1% 1% 2% 1% Other 1% 1% 0% 1% Both 4% 5% 2% 4% Don’t know 8% 8% 5% 7%

Source: Los Angeles Times polls from May, 1992 and October, 1993