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William John "Bill" Janklow (born September 13, 1939), American politician, was a four-term Governor of South Dakota and briefly a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Biography
Janklow was born in Chicago, Illinois. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1956 to 1959. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1964 and received a law degree in 1966. During his political career Janklow, a Republican, served as South Dakota's attorney general (1975-1979), and served four terms as Governor of South Dakota (1979-1987) and (1995-2003). In 2002, Janklow was elected to South Dakota's only House of Representatives seat.
Manslaughter conviction
On August 16, 2003, Janklow was involved in a traffic accident when his white Cadillac hit 55-year old motorcyclist Randolph E. Scott at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota. Scott was thrown from his vehicle and instantly killed. Janklow suffered a broken hand and bleeding on the brain. In the ensuing investigation of the accident, it was determined Janklow had been driving at least 71 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone and that he had run a stop sign at the intersection where the collision occurred.
Janklow was arraigned on August 29 on charges of felony manslaughter and several misdemeanor counts. In response, Janklow said he "couldn't be sorrier" for the accident. His trial began on December 1 when he pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. In his defense, his lawyer argued that Janklow suffered a bout of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, and was thus "confused" and "mixed up." Janklow testified that he had taken an insulin shot the morning of the accident and had subsequently not eaten anything throughout day, resulting in low blood sugar. Jurors were not informed of Janklow's record of three previous accidents and twelve speeding violations.
On December 8, 2003, Janklow was convicted by a jury in Moody County of second-degree manslaughter, a felony which carries a maximum 10-year prison term and a $10,000 fine. He was also convicted on three related misdemeanors of failure to stop, speeding, and reckless driving. The first two misdemeanors carry a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $200 fine. The top penalty for reckless driving is one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. On December 19, 2003, he filed a motion to have his conviction overturned on grounds of insufficient evidence.
Sentencing occurred on January 22, 2004 and Janklow was ordered to spend 100 days in jail. He was able to serve this time in the Minnehaha County jail in Sioux Falls rather than in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. After 30 days, he was able to leave the jail for several hours each day in order to perform community service. After his release on May 17, 2004, Janklow remains on probation for three years and will not be allowed to drive during this period.
On May 27, 2004, the pardons that Jankow granted during his governorship were released. Jankow had pardoned his son-in-law, William Gordon Haugen II, who was convicted of DUIs in 1983 and 1997 and marijuana possession in 1993.
Janklow's resignation from Congress took effect on January 20, 2004. His replacement, Stephanie Herseth, was chosen in the South Dakota primary election on June 1, 2004.
Previous legal trouble
His manslaughter conviction was not Janklow's first run-in with the law. In 1955, Janklow was brought before the juvenile court of Moody County for the sexual assault of a seventeen-year-old girl; though as a juvenile case, the records are sealed, Janklow told the media that it was not a rape case, "but it was preliminary to that sort of thing." In 1967, Janklow was accused by a Sioux tribal court of the rape of 15-year-old babysitter Jancita Eagle Deer; in 1974 he was disbarred from practicing law on the Rosebud Reservation in connection with the case. Eagle Deer was run over and killed by a car the following year; the circumstances of her death remain controversial.
During his last term as governor, Janklow was stopped on sixteen separate occasions for speeding, but was never ticketed. Between 1990 and 1994, when he was not governor, Janklow received and paid twelve speeding tickets, including one for going 90 mph in a 65 zone.
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