46 Facts About Bill Janklow

William John Janklow was an American lawyer and politician and member of the Republican Party who holds the record for the longest tenure as the governor of South Dakota: sixteen years in office.

Bill Janklow had the third-longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional US history at 5,851 days.

Bill Janklow served as the 25th Attorney General of South Dakota from 1975 to 1979 before serving as the state's 27th Governor from 1979 to 1987 and then the 30th Governor from 1995 to 2003.

Bill Janklow was then elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served for a little more than a year.

Bill Janklow resigned in 2004 after being convicted of manslaughter for his culpability in a fatal automobile crash.

When Bill Janklow was 10 years old his father died of a heart attack while working as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany.

Bill Janklow's mother moved the family back to the United States, and in 1954 when Janklow was 15, they settled in her home town of Flandreau, South Dakota.

In 1955, Bill Janklow's repeated acts of juvenile delinquency landed him in court.

Bill Janklow dropped out of high school and joined the US Marine Corps in 1956.

Bill Janklow was then trained as a personnel clerk and assigned to the 3rd Marine Division at Camp Kinser, Okinawa.

Bill Janklow was part of the Marine contingent that participated in the US response to the 1958 Quemoy-Matsu international crisis.

Bill Janklow was shot in the leg while he was part of a detachment that was delivering cannons to Taiwanese troops, and received an honorable discharge as a private first class in 1959.

Bill Janklow graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.

Bill Janklow went on to earn a JD at the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1966.

Bill Janklow then worked as Legal Services lawyer for six years on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, advancing to direct the program there.

In 1974, Bill Janklow was the successful Republican nominee for attorney general, and he served from 1975 to 1979.

In Opperman, Bill Janklow argued successfully that a warrantless search of a vehicle that had been impounded for a parking violation was permissible.

Bill Janklow was reelected in 1982 with nearly 71 percent of the vote, the highest percentage won by a gubernatorial candidate in the state's history.

Once in office, Bill Janklow worked with the legislature to make up the lost tax income by enacting a contractor's excise tax and reforming the franchise tax on banks.

In 1979 Janklow signed into law a bill reinstating capital punishment in South Dakota.

Bill Janklow supported passage of legislation to remove South Dakota's limit on interest rates.

In 1980, Janklow argued Reeves, Inc v Stake before the US Supreme Court.

Bill Janklow was successful in his argument that the state-owned cement plant could legally discriminate against out-of-state buyers in its pricing, which created the "market participant exception" to the US Constitution's Dormant Commerce Clause.

Bill Janklow increased accessibility for the disabled to public and private facilities in state.

Bill Janklow lost, with Abdnor winning by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin.

Bill Janklow returned to politics in 1994, when he defeated incumbent Walter Dale Miller in the Republican gubernatorial primary.

Bill Janklow was handily elected that year and was reelected in 1998.

Bill Janklow was at the time the only person in the state's history to serve eight full years as governor, which he did twice.

In 2002, Bill Janklow ran for the Republican nomination for South Dakota's only House seat.

Bill Janklow defeated the Democratic candidate, Stephanie Herseth, an attorney, by a vote of 180,023 to 153,656.

Bill Janklow ran through a stop sign, and collided with motorcyclist Randy Scott.

Bill Janklow's vehicle traveled 300 feet beyond the point of impact and hit a sign in a field.

Bill Janklow suffered a broken hand and bleeding on the brain.

Bill Janklow testified that he had taken an insulin shot the morning of the crash and had not eaten anything throughout the day.

From 1990 to 1994, Bill Janklow had 12 speeding tickets, with fines totaling $1000.

On December 8,2003, Bill Janklow was convicted by a Moody County jury of second-degree manslaughter, a felony, as well as the misdemeanors of speeding, running a stop sign, and reckless driving.

In 1974, a month before the election for state attorney general for which Bill Janklow was a candidate, Jancita Eagle Deer filed a petition through her attorney Larry Leventhal and tribal advocate Dennis Banks to disbar Bill Janklow to keep him from practicing in tribal court.

Judge Mario Gonzalez of the Rosebud Indian Reservation tribal court granted Eagle Deer's petition to disbar Bill Janklow from practicing law on the Rosebud Reservation.

At the request of Eagle Deer's attorneys, the tribal court "issued a misdemeanor arrest warrant for Bill Janklow based on sworn testimony on Eagle Deer's behalf ", but no arrest was made.

In 1975, Bill Janklow was investigated by the FBI before being nominated as a candidate for appointment to the board of the Legal Services Corporation.

Bill Janklow's suits were dismissed based on First Amendment protection of free speech.

Bill Janklow filed a libel suit against Newsweek based on an article in the weekly's February 21,1983, issue that included the disputed passage by Dennis Banks.

Bill Janklow represented landowners who were seeking reimbursement from the railroad for the taking of their property.

On November 4,2011, Bill Janklow announced during a press conference that he had terminal brain cancer.

Bill Janklow died at a hospice care facility in Sioux Falls on January 12,2012, aged 72.

Bill Janklow was buried at Sturgis, South Dakota's Black Hills National Cemetery, Section I, Site 127.