Reno honored for her justice work
An advocacy group presented Janet Reno, former Miami-Dade state attorney and U.S. attorney general, with a lifetime achievement award.
BY DAVID COFFEY
McClatchy News Service
WASHINGTON -- Janet Reno, the former attorney general in the Clinton administration and Miami-Dade resident, received a lifetime achievement award Friday from the American Judicature Society, a nonpartisan justice advocacy network.
Reno received the citation at a ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, surrounded by family, former colleagues and others.
Several now are affiliated with legal advocacy groups like the Justice Project, which helps exonerate those wrongfully convicted.
`NATION RESPONDING'
Speaking slowly and taking the stage without the assistance of a black cane she uses because of the effects of Parkinson disease, Reno praised violence prevention programs and the current direction of the Justice Department.
''Now I can look at America and think this is a nation that is responding in the most intelligent way possible to deal with violence, especially domestic violence,'' said Reno, accepting the award.
Speakers supported Reno's controversial actions during her time as attorney general, including the Justice Department's siege on Waco and the saga of Elián González, the young boy found at sea who was eventually returned to Cuba after a stay with relatives in Miami.
Reno's oft-criticized decision to send Elián, then nearly 6, back to his father in Cuba actually reflected her love for children and family, said Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Attorney General Eric Holder, Reno's deputy at the time of Elián's return to Cuba, called his former boss ``both tough and tender.''
In an interview last year on Good Morning America, Holder said he held a weeping Reno in his arms after she ordered the U.S. Marshal Service to remove Elián from his great-uncle's Miami home.
''She never asked what was the easy or expedient thing, popular, or politically palpable thing to do,'' when making decisions, Holder said Friday.
WACO SIEGE
The other event that brought criticism during Reno's tenure was the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco, Texas, 16 years ago. After being surrounded by federal agents in the standoff, a fire broke out and scores of cult members died. Four Treasury agents also died.
Despite the intense criticism after Waco, Reno ''stood up and took credit for possibly making a mistake,'' said Dees.
A five-term Miami-Dade County state attorney, Reno established the Miami Drug Court and was an outspoken advocate of crime prevention programs for children, a focus she carried with her to Washington.
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