Janet Reno has died from complications of Parkinson’s disease, her goddaughter says. She had been diagnosed with in 1995.
Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) served as the Attorney General of the United States, from 1993 to 2001.
She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11, 1993. She was the first woman to serve as Attorney General and the second longest serving Attorney General after William Wirt.
Reno was born in Miami, Florida. Reno’s mother, Jane Wallace (née Wood), raised her children and then became an investigative reporter for the Miami News. Her father, Henry Olaf Reno (original surname Rasmussen), was an emigrant from Denmark, who was a reporter for the Miami Herald for 43 years. Janet Reno had three younger siblings: Mark; writer Robert (1939–2012); and Maggy Hurchalla.
Reno attended public school in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where she was a debating champion, and was valedictorian at Coral Gables High School. In 1956 she enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she majored in chemistry, became president of the Women’s Self-Government Association, and earned her room and board. After graduating from Cornell University, Reno enrolled at Harvard Law School, graduating in 1963.
From 1963 to 1971 she worked as an attorney for two Miami law firms. In 1971, she joined the staff of the Judiciary Committee of the Florida House of Representatives. In 1973, she worked on a project to revise the state’s system of rules and regulations for criminal procedures. Later in the same year, she accepted a position with the Dade County State Attorney’s Office. She worked for the Judiciary Circuit, and left the state attorney’s office in 1976 to become a partner in a private law firm.
In 1978 Reno was appointed State Attorney for Dade County (now called Miami-Dade County). She was elected to the Office of State Attorney in November 1978 and was returned to office by the voters four more times. She worked actively in various civic organizations, including the Miami Coalition for a Safe and Drug Free Community and the Beacon Council, which was formed to address Miami-Dade’s economic development. During Reno’s tenure as state attorney, she began what the PBS series Frontline described as a “crusade” against accused child abusers. An editorial in the St. Petersburg Times argued:
“Reno’s reputation as a state attorney, the foundation for her eight years as the nation’s attorney general and her [2002] candidacy for governor of Florida, was built in significant part by her aggressive prosecution of three sensational child abuse cases in Miami-Dade County. She pioneered a controversial technique for eliciting intimate details from young children and inspired passage of a law allowing them to testify by closed-circuit television, out of the possibly intimidating presence of their suspected molesters.”
Several of those prosecuted by Reno were either acquitted or later released by appellate judges. One defendant, “a 14-year-old boy, was acquitted after his attorneys discredited the children’s persistent interrogations by a psychologist who called herself the ‘yucky secrets doctor.’ Another was freed by a federal appeals court after 12 years in prison.”
In May 1980, Reno prosecuted five white policemen who were accused of beating a black insurance salesman to death. The policemen were all acquitted. During the resulting 1980 Miami riots, twenty people were killed, with looters in Liberty City angrily chanting “Reno! Reno! Reno!” Reno met with nearly all of her critics, and a few months later, she won reelection in a landslide.
In 1993, during Bill Clinton’s administration, Reno was nominated and confirmed as the first woman to serve as the United States Attorney General. Both of his previous choices, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, faced problems because both had employed undocumented immigrants as nannies. Reno remained Attorney General for the rest of Clinton’s presidency, making her the longest-serving Attorney General since William Wirt in 1829.
Reno ran for Governor of Florida in 2002, but lost in the Democratic primary to Bill McBride 44% to 44.4%. Voting problems arose in the election, and she did not concede defeat until a week later. She has since retired from public service but frequently makes guest appearances for Democratic and other political causes.
After her tenure as attorney general and her unsuccessful gubernatorial bid, Reno toured the country giving speeches on topics relating to the criminal justice system. On March 31, 2006, she spoke at a criminology conference at the University of Pennsylvania. She stated that she believed the education system in the United States needs to be improved, as there is a link between the quality of education and the crime rate. She also believed that too much money has been diverted away from the juvenile court system and that the government should find some way to make the juvenile courts work effectively, so as to prevent problems in troubled children and adolescents before these problems are exacerbated by the time they reach adulthood.
In 2001, Reno appeared alongside Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live in the final installment of the recurring sketch “Janet Reno’s Dance Party”. On a 2007 Super Bowl XLI TV commercial, Janet Reno was among the guests at Chad Ochocinco’s Super Bowl party.
Reno curated a compilation of old-time American songs performed by contemporary artists called the Song of America.
Reno served on the board of directors for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization which assists prisoners who may be exonerated through DNA testing.
In March 2008, Reno received the Council on Litigation Management’s Professionalism Award, which recognizes and commemorates an individual who has demonstrated the unique ability to lead others by example in the highest standard of their profession.
On April 17, 2009, Reno was awarded the Justice Award by the American Judicature Society. Eric Holder, Attorney General under the Obama Administration, presented Reno the award. Seth Andersen, Executive Vice President of AJS said the award recognizes “her commitment to improving our systems of justice and educating Americans about our great common enterprise – to ensure equality under the law.” The award is the highest given by the AJS, and recognizes significant contributions toward improvements in the administration of justice within the United States.
In 2013, Reno voiced herself for the “Dark Knight Court” episode of The Simpsons.
Be the first to comment