| During his long career as federal judge
at Fort Smith, Arkansas, Isaac Charles Parker passed the death sentence
on 162 criminals-and more than 80 of them were hanged on the gallows that
stood just outside his courtroom. Although he became known and feared as
"the hanging judge," Parker was not a cruel man. He often showed sympathy
for the families of defendants, and he did his best to assure a fair trial
for each of the more than 13,000 defendants brought into his court. The
severity of Judge Parker's sentences stemmed from the fact that he was
dealing with many hardened criminals. His court had jurisdiction over a
part of the West, which was so infested with renegades and cutthroats that
it was known as "Robbers' Roost" and "The Land of the Six-Shooter". Outlaws
raided herds on the Texas-Kansas cattle trails, ambushed and killed travelers,
and robbed banks in nearby states. In 21 years, 65 of Parker's deputy U.S.
marshals were killed while tracking down and bringing outlaws and murderers
into court.
Born in Belmont County, Ohio, on October
15, 1838, Parker moved to Missouri with his family, and by 1859 he had
become a lawyer in St. Joseph. He served as city attorney from 1860 to
1864, and as judge of the l2th circuit court in 1868-1870, before being
elected to Congress. As a member of the House of Representatives, he showed
sympathy for the original inhabitants of the West and tried to obtain better
treatment for them. In 1875 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Parker
chief justice of Utah Territory, but after the nomination was confirmed
Grant asked Parker to resign and accept appointment instead to the Federal
Court at Fort Smith (Arkansas). Recognizing an opportunity to make the
court a force for law and order in a particularly wild and rough part of
the West, Parker gladly accepted the challenge.
Until 1889 Parker's decisions as a federal
judge were final and could not be appealed to a higher court, although
the President could save a condemned man by commuting his death sentence.
Then the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing appeals of Parker's cases and
overturned several of his decisions on the ground that he had ignored certain
technicalities of the law. Parker insisted that the technical safeguards
used to protect a defendant from an unfair judge should not be used to
protect cold-blooded murderers.
Parker, who was 36 when he came to Fort
Smith, died in 1896 aged 57.
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