Government

State AG Killed A Man And Told Cops He'd Hit A Deer, Will Only Face Misdemeanor Charges

That sound you hear is a wrist slap.

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In his 2018 campaign, South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg promised “TOUGH JUSTICE.” Apparently some terms and conditions apply in South Dakota as prosecutors pegged Ravnsborg with three misdemeanor charges for “using a mobile electronic device, illegal lane change and careless driving.”

Back in September, Ravnsborg attended an in-person event at Rooster’s Bar and Grill to raffle off an engraved Trump handgun. That an elected official from a state, second only to North Dakota in COVID cases per capita, would attend a superspreader event to pawn off Trump hand cannons raised a number of questions about his judgment in the first place, but leaving the event — where alcohol was definitely available — and then striking and killing a man in a hit and run that he later claimed he didn’t report because he thought it was a deer, should give everyone pause. Thankfully for Ravnsborg, South Dakota prosecutors uncharacteristically buried any hint of skepticism and apparently just took him at his word that he wasn’t lying to law enforcement, wasn’t drunk, and wasn’t deserving of an aggravated charge given his past driving infractions.

A reminder that Sandra Bland was killed over an illegal lane change and prosecutors decided that wasn’t worth charging her killer, but for Ravnsborg, the misdemeanor is unlikely to be a death penalty offense.

While many expected that prosecutors would retreat from their “law and order” rhetoric to give Ravnsborg a slap on the wrist as a political backpatting exercise, the decision to announce charges that Ravnsborg engaged in behavior that could form the basis of a vehicular manslaughter charge and just… left off the last part is insane. What’s the theory of the case? There were no witnesses, so the argument is that his careless lane change while distracted by an electronic device actually caused a man’s death. It’s hard to get to the predicate acts without at least taking the manslaughter charge to a jury.

The criminal justice system doesn’t make a lot of sense without consistency. And yet here we are.

BREAKING: South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg facing three misdemeanors in connection with deadly crash [KELOLAND News]

Earlier: State Attorney General Told Officers He’d Hit A Deer… In Reality, A Man Is Now Dead

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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