Soon Ja Du Sentencing

People

Soon Ja Du; Latasha Harlins

Outcome

unknown

On November 15, 1991, Judge Joyce Karlin sentenced Soon Ja Du, a 49-year-old Korean American store owner, to five years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a $500 fine for the voluntary manslaughter of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins—despite the jury's recommendation of the maximum sentence of 16 years in prison. A jury had found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter after she shot Harlins in the back of the head with a .38-caliber handgun on March 16, 1991, at Empire Liquor Market Deli in South Central Los Angeles. Security camera footage showed that Harlins, who had placed a $1.79 bottle of orange juice in her backpack, was holding two dollars in her hand and approaching the counter to pay when Du accused her of stealing. After a physical confrontation, Harlins threw the juice bottle on the counter and turned to leave when Du shot her. The probation officer who interviewed Du recommended that probation be denied, noting that Du showed no remorse and stated she would react the same way if faced with the same situation again. Judge Karlin's sentence was met with outrage from the African American community, particularly because Karlin had sentenced a Glendale man to harsher penalties for kicking a dog just one week later. The sentencing exacerbated racial tensions between African American residents and Korean American merchants in South Central Los Angeles and is widely regarded as one of the catalysts for the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Latasha Harlins was born on January 1, 1976 (some sources say July 14, 1975), in East St. Louis, Illinois, to Crystal Harlins and Sylvester Vester Acoff Sr. Her family moved to South Central Los Angeles in 1981 when she was six years old, settling near 89th Street and Broadway—just blocks from where she would later be killed. Her parents' marriage ended in 1983 due to her father's abuse, and on November 27, 1985, her mother Crystal was shot and killed outside a Los Angeles nightclub by her father's new girlfriend. After her mother's death, Latasha was raised by her maternal grandmother, Ruth Harlins, whom the children called "Madea." Latasha was a caretaker who cooked, helped her siblings with chores and homework, and made sure others had before she had. She ran track in middle school and was on the honor roll. At the time of her death, she was a student at Westchester High School with dreams of becoming a lawyer and buying her grandmother a big house. On the morning of Saturday, March 16, 1991—just thirteen days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King by LAPD officers—Latasha entered Empire Liquor Market Deli to purchase orange juice. She placed the $1.79 bottle in her backpack and approached the counter with two dollars in her hand to pay. Soon Ja Du, who co-owned the store with her husband, accused Harlins of stealing and grabbed her backpack, triggering a physical struggle. Harlins struck Du, and Du threw a stool at her. Harlins then threw the orange juice bottle on the counter and turned to leave the store. As she walked away, Du pulled a .38-caliber handgun from beneath the counter and shot Harlins in the back of the head, killing her instantly. The entire incident was captured on the store's security camera. On November 15, 1991, a jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter, determining that her decision to fire the gun was fully within her control and that she fired voluntarily. The jury recommended the maximum sentence of 16 years in prison. Deputy District Attorney Roxane Carvajal asked for the maximum sentence, citing the probation officer's report that Du showed no remorse and had stated she would react the same way again. The probation officer's ultimate recommendation was that probation be denied and Du be sentenced to state prison. However, Judge Joyce Karlin—who had been appointed to the Superior Court bench earlier that year—suspended the 10-year prison sentence and instead imposed five years of probation, 400 hours of community service, a $500 fine, and payment of Harlins's funeral costs. Karlin stated: "This is not a time for rhetoric. It is not a time for revenge. It should be a time for healing." She reportedly told Ruth Harlins, Latasha's grandmother, that the murder would not have occurred if her granddaughter had not gone into Du's store. The sentencing provoked immediate outrage. Los Angeles County District Attorney Ira Reiner instructed his deputies to effectively bar Judge Karlin from trying cases by invoking a statute allowing removal of a judge for any reason, saying "this was such a stunning miscarriage of justice that Judge Karlin cannot continue to hear criminal cases with any public credibility." Critics noted that just one week after sentencing Du, Karlin had imposed harsher penalties on a Glendale man for kicking a dog. On April 21, 1992, a California state appeals court unanimously upheld Karlin's sentencing decision 3-0. Eight days later, on April 29, 1992, the acquittal of the four LAPD officers who beat Rodney King triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots. During the riots, Empire Liquor was looted and burned, and Korean-owned businesses throughout South Central and Koreatown were specifically targeted—a direct consequence of the unresolved anger over Latasha Harlins's death and Du's lenient sentence. The Harlins family later received a $300,000 settlement from Du's insurance company. Judge Karlin retired from the bench in 1997 and later served on the Manhattan Beach city council from 1999 to 2007, including a term as mayor in 2002.