Isaac C. Parker

Isaac Charles Parker
Portrait of Isaac C. Parker, Fort Smith National Historic Site
Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas
In office
March 19, 1875 – November 17, 1896
Appointed byUlysses S. Grant
Preceded byWilliam Story
Succeeded byJohn Henry Rogers
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Missouri
In office
March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1875
Preceded byJoel Funk Asper
Succeeded byDavid Rea
Constituency7th district (1871–1873)
9th district (1873–1875)
Personal details
Born
Isaac Charles Parker

(1838-10-15)October 15, 1838
Barnesville, Ohio
DiedNovember 17, 1896(1896-11-17) (aged 58)
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Resting placeFort Smith National Cemetery,
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Political partyDemocratic (until 1864)
Republican (from 1864)
EducationRead law

Isaac Charles Parker (October 15, 1838 – November 17, 1896), also known as "Hanging Judge" Parker, was an American politician and jurist. He served as a United States representative (congressman) in two separate districts subsequently from Missouri and was appointed as the first United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas (sitting in Fort Smith, Arkansas on the border), which also had jurisdiction over the adjacent Indian Territory (future Oklahoma, 1907) to the west. He was appointed by 18th President Ulysses S. Grant in 1875 and served in the federal judiciary until his death in 1896.

Parker became known as the "Hanging judge" of the American frontier / Old West, because he sentenced numerous convicts to death.[1] In serving 21 years on the federal bench, Judge Parker tried 13,490 cases. In more than 8,500 of these cases, the defendant either pleaded guilty or was convicted at trial.[2] Parker sentenced 160 people to death; 79 were executed.[3][4] The other 81 either died while incarcerated, were pardoned, or had their sentences commuted.[3][4]

  1. ^ National Park Service. "Judge Isaac C. Parker". National Park Service. Retrieved November 22, 2015. Remembered in Western novels and films as a "Hanging Judge"
  2. ^ Burton 2008, p. 30
  3. ^ a b "Men Executed at Fort Smith: 1873 to 1896". National Historic Site: Fort Smith. National Park Service.
  4. ^ a b "History — Historical Federal Executions". U.S. Marshals Service. U.S. Federal Government. Retrieved December 14, 2015.