Janklow’s Probation Ending

Former Rep. Bill Janklow will emerge from his manslaughter probation Monday with a clean record, more than three years after he sped through a stop sign in a Cadillac and killed a motorcyclist.

But the 67-year-old‘s political career is through.

Janklow told The Associated Press he did not want to comment about the end of his probation.

His record will be cleared because Circuit Judge Rodney Steele, now retired, issued Janklow a suspended imposition of sentence in 2004 — a one-time-only pass for a person found guilty of a felony.

State law allows a suspended imposition of sentence only once in a person‘s lifetime. A judge can grant it if the judge believes justice and the best interests of the public and defendant will be served.

“I got probably 30 or 40 letters, most from the members of the American Motorcycle Association, that thought it was way too lenient,” he said.

Scott was killed instantly. Janklow suffered minor injuries.

A jury in Janklow‘s boyhood home of Flandreau convicted him of second-degree manslaughter that December. He resigned from Congress a month later.

Scott‘s mother, Marcella Scott, declined to comment on the end of Janklow‘s probation.

The Minneapolis lawyer representing the family, Ronald Meshbesher, was out of the country and could not be reached immediately for comment.

Carrie Van Dyke, a friend of Scott‘s, said she hopes Janklow learned from his mistake.

“We have to be forgiving. It‘s not like he did it on purpose, like he woke up and said, ‘I‘m going to run a stop sign and kill somebody today,‘” she said.