Posted on 12/08/2003 3:53:45 PM PST by Diverdogz
That's what separates us from the folks at DU, and libs in general. We have consciences, and will critisize our own when warranted!
Amen Brother. Amen
Bingo.
My guess is that he'll fight, because he could have taken the high road before the trial, which was a slam dunk against him, anyway. His political career was already toast. The Republicans need to jettison him, and if he had an ounce of class, he'd make it easy. If he fights to keep his job, any Democrat opponent of his would win his seat, something we don't need in a state where we're trying to unseat Daschle.
Doggy, that's the part I don't get. I would give anything to have 15 miles of open back roads. A stop sign every now and then certainly isn't a big price to pay for the lack of traffic.
FLANDREAU, S.D. - In a verdict that could bring an abrupt end to a three-decade political career, a jury convicted Rep. Bill Janklow of manslaughter Monday for a collision that killed a motorcyclist, rejecting the congressman's claim that he was disoriented by a diabetic reaction.
The jury in Janklow's boyhood hometown deliberated for about five hours before returning its verdict.
Janklow, 64, was convicted of second-degree manslaughter, reckless driving, running a stop sign and speeding for the Aug. 16 crash that killed Randy Scott, 55, a farmer from Hardwick, Minn. Prosecutors said Janklow was traveling more than 70 mph in his white Cadillac when he crashed with Scott's Harley-Davidson.
Janklow could get up to 10 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and also face a House ethics committee investigation that could lead to his expulsion.
Janklow, a Republican, was elected to South Dakota's lone House seat last year following an extraordinary political career in which he served four years as state attorney general in the 1970s and 16 years as governor. During his two stints as governor, Janklow won over legions of voters in heavily conservative South Dakota with his tough-talking, maverick style.
His trial created a scenario that once would have seemed unthinkable in this rural state: the enormously powerful Janklow on trial for manslaughter in the farming community where he grew up.
The trial began Dec. 1 with a jury-selection process that revealed Janklow's widespread popularity in Flandreau, a town of about 2,000 people. Several jury candidates knew Janklow and his family, including one who shook hands with the former governor as he left the courtroom.
Once a panel was chosen, jurors witnessed several emotional images during five days of testimony, including Janklow in tears as he described his grief over the crash. A man who was riding motorcycles with Scott cried as he recalled finding the victim's mangled body in a soybean field. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, himself a pillar of South Dakota politics, also took the stand.
The defense argued that Janklow, a diabetic, was suffering the effects of low blood sugar at the time of the crash because he had not eaten for 18 hours. Medical experts told prosecutors it is unusual for anyone to go that long without food — and highly dangerous for a diabetic who takes insulin.
But deputy prosecutor Roger Ellyson called the diabetes defense "goofy," saying Janklow concocted the defense as an excuse for his reckless driving.
Ellyson called Janklow an "unbelievably awful and menacing" driver.
"The defendant's driving is like a deadly game of Russian roulette," Ellyson said in closing arguments. "On August 16, Randy Scott took the bullet."
"He couldn't say, 'I was driving so fast I couldn't stop.' Or he couldn't say, 'I always ignore these rural stop signs.' That would be admitting to manslaughter. He knows the trouble he's in," Ellyson said.
In his closing argument, defense lawyer Ed Evans said investigators quickly concluded Janklow must have sped through the stop sign, and he said they were not interested in finding out if a diabetic condition was to blame.
"Does it make sense that you drive through a blind intersection, risking your own life, the life of your passenger and the life of others?" Evans asked jurors.
The defense said that Janklow took heart medication on the day of the crash that can mask the symptoms of a diabetic reaction. That is why Janklow did not feel his blood sugar drop before the accident, the defense contended.
Several witnesses said they did not see Janklow eat or drink anything that day, including Daschle, who called the congressman "a very truthful person."
Janklow has long been an unapologetic speeder, as witnessed during a 1999 speech to the Legislature.
"Bill Janklow speeds when he drives — shouldn't, but he does," Janklow said then. "When he gets the ticket he pays it, but if someone told me I was going to jail for two days for speeding, my driving habits would change."
In one well-known instance, two reporters were riding with Janklow when he made a 99-mph mad dash, through heavy smoke, down a mountain highway in the Black Hills during a raging forest fire in 2002. Janklow had tried to go faster, but the computer in his sport utility vehicle kept the engine from going past 99 mph.
Janklow received 12 speeding tickets from 1990 to October 1994. He was elected to a third term as governor a month later and never received another ticket in the state.
The jury was not allowed to hear about the tickets, but the prosecution was granted permission to present evidence of a close call at the same intersection where Scott died.
Jennifer Walters said a speeding white Cadillac ran the stop sign and missed their pickup by mere feet last December. She called 911 to report it and Moody County Deputy Sheriff Tony Aas said that about 10 minutes later he stopped the Cadillac. Janklow was the driver and he was doing 92 mph, though the officer locked his radar on at 86, he testified.
Walters said she did not pursue charges against Janklow because he was governor at the time. On the stand, Janklow denied running the stop sign.
Janklow also said he has wished "a thousand times" that he would have eaten on Aug. 16. He told the prosecutor he does speed when he drives and he has run stop signs but that he would not speed through a blind intersection on purpose.
The House ethics committee's rules say representatives who plead guilty or are convicted of a crime that carries two or more years in prison should refrain from voting or taking part in committee meetings in the chamber until their record is cleared or until re-elected.
The ethics committee could also recommend a House resolution reprimanding him, censuring him or even expelling him, though the House rarely expels members. After Ohio Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. was convicted in federal court last year for bribery, racketeering and tax evasion, he became only the second House member to be expelled since the Civil War.
Source: AP via Yahoo!
I guess low blood sugar causes him to have a heavy foot on the gas peddle also?
I saw a clip of him on the news where at some conference he was laughing about speeding all the time and he said he just pays the fines.
Scum Bag
The definition of manslaughter is doing something wrong without regard as to whether it could kill someone, in basic layman terms. Did he do something wrong? Did it kill someone?
My only question is why the jury took five hours to decide.
Because his negligence caused the death of another person.
Looks like a can of coke to me. I have diabetes and it's common for folks like me to carry some type of sugar on us at all times in case of low blood sugar, although it's popular to just carry a pack of lifesavers or some other type of hard candy. I suspect Janklow is trying to illustrate that he's learned his lesson and is carrying sugar with him at all times...if you can believe that.
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