The Nation - News from April 11, 1985

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis revived South Dakota Gov. William J. Janklow’s $10-million defamation suit against Newsweek magazine concerning an article recounting the governor’s dogged pursuit of Indian leader Dennis Banks. The article, published Feb. 21, 1983, mentioned that Janklow had once been a suspect in the alleged rape of an Indian girl. Janklow was never prosecuted in the incident. The U.S. District Court in South Dakota granted Newsweek a summary judgment in the case, saying the magazine had not claimed the rape charge was true, but the appeals court said the actual malice question to be answered in a defamation case “has not been adequately developed to enable us to rule on that issue in this appeal.”