Judge Nullification
Published January 23, 2004
Wow. The judge in former South Dakota Congressman Bill Janklow's case has done what the jury refused to do: give special treatment to a powerful, popular defendant.
The jury did its job and convicted Janklow on manslaughter charges. The judge, who was not bound to a minimum sentence, didn't do his. He gave Janklow 100 days of in the county jail. After 30 days, he can leave for up to ten hours per day for community service.
Oh yeah, and he can't drive for three years.
Tommy Chong got a longer, harder sentence for selling glass pipes on the Internet.
The judge seems to have ignored the fact that Janklow is an unrepentant, chronic, reckless speeder who was literally a fatal accident waiting to happen.
Janklow should be spending a minimum of a few years in a real prison for taking the life of an innocent motorist. And then he should have his license permanently revoked.
Here was Janklow's attitude before he killed someone:
"Bill Janklow speeds when he drives — shouldn't, but he does," Janklow said in a 1999 speech to the Legislature. "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 other words, he wasn't about to stop speeding until the consequences were worse. So he kept speeding until he killed someone.
The judge gave this unapologetic guy less than four months in the county jail. Sentences like this put mandatory minimum sentences — which I generally think are a bad idea — on the books. The judge should hang up his robes in shame.
- Judge Nullification
- Published: January 23, 2004
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- Section: Politics
- Writer: bhw
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A bad end to a reasonable shot at real justice. I agree with your assessment here and am astonished the judge didn't give more thought to how this would look and smell: cronyism, privilege, one hand washing the other. I am less concerned even about the sentence than I am about the driving: he should never drive again.
The frustrating part is that the judge had discretion, and he's supposed to use it to look at the defendant's history and attitude. On the one hand, Janklow served his state and country and in the process, probably did a lot of good things. But on the other, he was a complete jerk on the roads and joked about his speeding habit. And although he showed remorse in the courtroom, he accepted no responsibility for what he did. It was the diabetes. Right.
Janklow was a first time offender in the sense of committing manslaughter, but not in the reckless, careless disregard for the law and the life of others. That's why he should have received a harsher sentence.
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Yeah, he's all "MR Law and Order" until it's his ass in the docket! And since his felony will be erased later, he'll be able to continue to vote and run for office. Wonder if he'll pull the 'health problems' routine to get out of even the 100 days.
And before someone brings up Teddy Kennedy, don't forget Laura Bush killed her ex-boyfriend in a car accident and didn't spend a second in jail either.
It's not so much a rep vs. dem thing, it's a privileged versus commoner thing.