Copyright 1998 ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Kaleidoscope
COUNTRY:
United States
PERSON: Janet Reno
HEADLINE: Biographies
After 15 years as the state attorney for Dade County, Florida, Janet Reno was
appointed by President Bill Clinton as the U.S. attorney general in 1993.
Reno was born in South Florida on Jul 28, 1938 to a Danish immigrant father
and a
free-spirited mother who was an honorary Micosukee Indian princess. It was her
mother who taught her a deep respect for the environment, an important part of
Reno's outlook, while Reno was growing up on the family homestead near the
Everglades. Reno was a state
debating champion while at Coral Gables High School and president of the
Women's Student Government at Cornell University, where she graduated in 1960.
She received a law degree from Harvard University in 1963 and spent eight years
in private practice in Florida before
being appointed staff director of the Florida House judiciary committee in
1971. She joined the state attorney's office in Dade County in 1973.
In 1978 Reno was appointed to fill the vacated position of state attorney of
Dade County. Here she at first alienated the local black
community by failing in 1980 to win a conviction for four Miami police officers
accused of beating a black insurance man to death. The trial's outcome touched
off rioting in Miami. However, by opening her office to men and women of all
races and ethnic
groups she improved her relations with blacks and the community at large and
won reelection to her post four times. During her long tenure, Reno reformed
the juvenile justice system, established special courts for drug offenses, and
devoted much effort to making absent fathers pay child support. She was
criticized by conservatives and the police for not being tough enough on crime
and by some attorneys and judges for not prosecuting tough cases against police
and public officials.
Reno was chosen as attorney general after Clinton twice failed to win approval
for
women nominees. She came under criticism early in her tenure for the role of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is under her authority as head of
the Justice Department, in the burning of the Branch Davidian complex near
Waco, Texas. She won admiration, however, for her stern defense of her decision
to enter the compound and end the
51-day standoff between federal officials and the heavily armed cult. She
defended the decision as an attempt to save the endangered children in the
compound. In 1997, Clinton reappointed Reno for his second term in office.
[Sources: Facts on File World News Digest; The
New York Times]
LOAD-DATE: February 18, 1998
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1998 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
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