Diane Alexis Whipple (January 31, 1967 – January 26, 2001) was an American lacrosse player and college coach. She was killed in a dog attack in San Francisco on January 26, 2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canarios belonging to Paul Schneider, a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood serving three life sentences in state prison. The dogs were looked after by Schneider's attorneys, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, a married couple that lived in the same apartment building as Whipple. After the fatal attack, the state brought criminal charges against the attorneys. Noel, who was not present during the attack, was convicted of manslaughter. Knoller, who was present, was charged with implied-malice second-degree murder and convicted by the jury. Knoller's murder conviction, an unusual result for an unintended dog attack, was rejected by the trial judge but ultimately upheld. The case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.

Early life of Diane Whipple

Whipple was born in Princeton, New Jersey. She grew up and attended high school in Manhasset, New York, on Long Island. She was raised primarily by her grandparents, and was a gifted athlete from a young age. She became a two-time All-American lacrosse player in high school, and later played at the university level at Penn State. She was twice a member of the U.S. Women's Lacrosse World Cup team.

Whipple later moved to San Francisco and tried to qualify for the 800 meters running event in track and field for the U.S. 1996 Olympics team, but she did not qualify and did not compete in the formal Olympic team trials. She became the lacrosse coach at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California.

At the time of her death, Whipple lived in San Francisco's Pacific Heights with her domestic partner of six years, Sharon Smith.

Background of the dogs

Two Pelican Bay State Prison inmates, Paul 'Cornfed' Schneider and Dale Bretches, both members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang, agreed to take possession of the dogs. They had become acquainted with Schneider while doing legal work for prisoners, and had adopted Schneider (then age 38) as their legal son a few days before the mauling.

Knoller and Noel

Knoller attended Brooklyn College, and received her J.D. degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California.

Just prior to the attack, Knoller was taking the dogs up to the roof; Whipple died hours later at San Francisco General Hospital from "loss of blood from multiple traumatic injuries (dog bite wounds)".

In March 2001, a grand jury indicted Knoller and Noel. Knoller was indicted for second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, Noel was indicted for involuntary manslaughter, and "both also face[d] felony charges of keeping a mischievous dog".

The trial by jury, which began in January 2002, "was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive publicity in the Bay Area."

Ultimately, the jury found both Noel and Knoller guilty of involuntary manslaughter and owning a mischievous animal that caused the death of a human being, and found Knoller guilty of second-degree murder. Their convictions were based on the argument that they knew the dogs were aggressive towards other people and that they did not take sufficient precautions, and, in Knoller's case, that she had allowed the dogs to maul Whipple to death without trying to save her. Whether they had actually trained the dogs to attack and fight remained unclear.

Although the jury found Knoller guilty of second degree murder, trial judge James Warren granted Knoller a new trial on the second-degree murder conviction; the judge believed the appropriate standard for implied malice murder required that Knoller knew taking the dog into the hall involved a high probability of death. Although the judge granted a new trial for the second degree murder charge, he sentenced Knoller to four years in prison for the lesser-included involuntary manslaughter on July 15, 2002. Knoller resigned from the bar in January 2007; Noel was disbarred in February. On September 14, 2003, Noel was released from prison.

By 2004, both Knoller and Noel had served their terms for the manslaughter convictions, and Knoller was out on bail while her second-degree murder conviction was under appeal.

In May 2005, the state appellate court reversed the judge's grant of new second-degree murder trial for Knoller. The appellate court ruled that implied malice murder did not require knowledge of a high probability of death but rather just a conscious disregard of serious bodily injury. The appellate court returned the case to the lower court to reconsider Knoller's motion for a new trial using the serious bodily injury standard for implied malice murder.

thumb|Marjorie Knoller in 2018

Knoller appealed the appellate court decision to the Supreme Court of California. On June 1, 2007, the California Supreme Court rejected the Court of Appeal's decision and ruled that implied malice murder required proof that a defendant acted with "conscious disregard" of the danger to human life. The San Francisco Superior Court reinstated the conviction for second-degree murder, and on September 22, 2008, the court sentenced Knoller to 15 years to life.

Knoller then appealed the trial court's actions. On August 23, 2010, the First District Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Knoller's conviction, finding that she acted with a conscious disregard for human life when the dogs under her care escaped and killed Whipple. The California Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal of that decision. Knoller is currently serving her sentence at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla.

In November 2015, Knoller petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn her second-degree murder conviction. In February 2016, the Ninth Circuit upheld Knoller's second degree murder conviction.

On February 7, 2019, California commissioners denied Knoller's first application for parole. Her December 2021 parole hearing was first postponed until August 29, 2022, then again until February 15, 2023. Her parole was denied. The two member panel cited her prison record and stated she would be a danger to society if released. On February 12, 2026, a two member panel of the Board of Parole Hearings denied Knoller's parole, once again on grounds that if released she would still be a danger to society and cited her prison record that included two disciplinary actions. She will be eligible for parole in 2029, when she will be 70 years of age.

Whipple's partner, Sharon Smith, also succeeded in suing Knoller and Noel for $1.5 million in damages. She donated some of the money to Saint Mary's College of California to fund the women's lacrosse team.

Later life of Robert Noel

Noel lived in relative obscurity following his release from prison, working for a time as a baker in Fairfield, California. By 2016, increasing health problems led to his living out of a van for some time before he relocated to the San Diego area.

See also

  • Fatal dog attacks in the United States
  • Death of Elisa Pilarski

References

Further reading

  • Harrington, Joseph. Death of an Angel: The Inside Story of how Justice Prevailed in the San Francisco Dog-mauling Case.
  • Jones, Aphrodite. Red Zone: The Behind-The-Scenes Story of the San Francisco Dog Mauling.
  • O'Leary, Shannon. Pet Noir (contains a story by O'Leary, illustrated by MariNaomi, of this case), Manic D Press.
  • Wright, Evan. Hella Nation (contains an investigative report into the case, titled "Mad Dogs and Lawyers")
  • "Attorneys in Dog-Mauling Case Deploy Widely Different Styles,", Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times, 25 February 2002
  • "Dog owner convicted of second-degree murder in fatal attack on woman", Adolfo Flores, Los Angeles Times, 29 August 2014
  • Court TV coverage of Diane Whipple dog mauling case
  • "Descent into Darkness - Southern Poverty Law Center
  • Documentary series Mugshots from Court TV (now TruTV) "Mugshots: Knoller and Noel – The Attack Dog Scandal" episode (2002) from FilmRise Documentaries
  • Multimedia Special from the San Francisco Chronicle