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 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, because he sentenced numerous convicts to death. 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. Parker sentenced 160 people to death; 79 were executed. The other 81 either died while incarcerated, were pardoned, or had their sentences commuted. At 17, he began an apprenticeship in law, called "reading the law" with an established firm, and passed the Ohio bar examination in 1859 at the age of 21. By 1862, Parker had his own law firm. He represented clients in the municipal and county courts.

During the 1860s, Parker continued both his legal and political careers. In 1864, he formally split from the Democratic Party over conflicting opinions on slavery. He ran as a Republican for county prosecutor of the Ninth Missouri Judicial District. By the fall of 1864, he was serving as a member of the Electoral College and voted for re-election of Abraham Lincoln. In 1868, Parker won a six-year term as judge of the Twelfth Missouri Circuit. Parker won the election after his opponent withdrew two weeks prior to the vote. Parker was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives of the 42nd and 43rd U.S. Congresses, serving from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1875. He was the caucus nominee of his party for U.S. Senator in 1874.

The first session of the 42nd Congress convened on March 4, 1871. During his first term, Parker helped to secure pensions for veterans in his district and campaigned for a new federal building to be built in St. Joseph. He sponsored a failed bill designed to enfranchise women and allow them to hold public office in United States territories. He also sponsored legislation to organize the Indian Territory under a territorial government. A local paper wrote of him, "Missouri had no more trusted or influential representative in ... Congress during the past two years".

In his second term, Parker concentrated on Indian policy, including the fair treatment of the tribes residing in the Indian Territory. His speeches in support of the Bureau of Indian Affairs gained national attention.

In 1874, Parker was the caucus nominee of the Republican Party for a Missouri Senate seat. At his own request ten months later,

Parker was confirmed the next day by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 1875, and received his commission the same day.

On the same day of his first session in court, May 10, Parker commissioned Bass Reeves (1838–1910), whom Marshal Fagan had heard about, as a Deputy U.S. Marshal. Reeves knew the Territory well and could speak several Native languages; he became the first African American deputy marshal west of the Mississippi River.

In May 1875, Parker tried 18 men during his first session of court, all of whom were charged with murder; 15 were convicted in jury trials. Parker sentenced eight of them to a mandatory death penalty.

Parker's court had final jurisdiction over federal crimes in the adjacent Indian Territory for 14 years from the time of his appointment in 1875 until 1889, as there was no other court available for appeals except to the President of the United States through his recently established (1870) United States Department of Justice. The Five Civilized Tribes and other Native American tribes assigned in the Indian Territory had jurisdiction over their own citizens through their semi-independent tribal legal systems and governments allowed by treaty. Federal law in the Indian Territory applied to non-Indian<!---a "native American" is anyone born in the United States; in this instance, the distinction needs to be quite clear, regardless of current politically correct terminology---> United States citizens.

According to the policies set up by the United States Congress, the federal court for the Western District of Arkansas was to meet in four separate terms each year, in February, May, August, and November. However, the court had such a heavy caseload and wide territorial jurisdiction that the four terms were run continuously. Parker's court sat for six days a week in order to ensure prosecuting as many cases as possible in each term, and often in session for up to ten hours each day.

From May 1, 1889, (because of the opening of the newly organized Oklahoma Territory further west and some parts of the Indian Territories to White settlers in the famous Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 of that earlier April), Congress made changes to allow appeals of capital convictions to go instead to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Forty-four cases in which Parker imposed the death penalty were appealed to the Supreme Court. It overturned and ordered a re-trial for 30 of them.

While serving as a federal district judge in Fort Smith, Parker also was active in the local community, serving on the Fort Smith School Board. He was the first president of St. John's Hospital, established by the local parish St. John's Episcopal Church. Today, this hospital still exists as a medical agency (although affiliated with a different Protestant denomination) as Baptist Health Fort Smith.

In his time on the federal court, Parker presided over a number of high-profile cases, including the trial of Crawford Goldsby, famously known as "Cherokee Bill", and the "Oklahoma Boomer" case involving David L. Payne, a non-Indian who illegally settled on tribal lands in the Indian Territory. In 1895, Parker heard two cases involving Goldsby. In the first, Goldsby was charged with killing a bystander during a general-store robbery the year before in 1894.

He was convicted in that case that lasted from February 26 to June 25, 1895, and Parker sentenced him to death. While awaiting execution, Goldsby attempted to escape prison and killed a prison guard during the incident. He was tried again and convicted once again in Parker's court; the judge sentenced him to a second death penalty on December 2, 1895. Goldsby was subsequently hanged three months later on March 17, 1896. <!-- What about Payne? Why classified as high profile? -->

Later years

thumb|left|150px|Parker in his later years

Keeping with continued settlement in the American West, the Courts Act of 1889 enacted by Congress finally established a federal court system in the Indian Territory. This decreased the span of jurisdiction of the Western District of Arkansas Federal Court at Fort Smith.

Hudson was convicted of assault with intent to kill and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. He appealed to the Supreme Court and was granted bail. Judge Parker refused to release Hudson on the grounds that the statute law did not provide the Supreme Court with the authority to demand Hudson's release.

A year later in 1895, Congress itself addressed the issue in dispute by passing a Courts Act that removed the remaining Indian Territory jurisdiction of the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith and powers of Judge Parker, effective September 1, 1896.

Death and legacy

thumb|alt=Reconstructed gallows, painted white with an open angled roof and brick wall at the rear.|Present-day image of the reconstructed gallows now located at the Fort Smith National Historic Site, taken in 2008

When the August 1896 term began, Parker was at home, suffering from Bright's disease and too ill to preside over the court. The jurisdiction of the court over Indian Territory was ended on September 1, 1896. Reporters wanted to interview Parker about his career, but had to talk to him at his bedside. He is buried at the Fort Smith National Cemetery.

In 2019, the city of Fort Smith unveiled a statue of Parker representing law and order.

See also

  • George Maledon, an American hangman aptly nicknamed "The Prince of Hangmen", who served in the federal court of Judge Isaac Parker
  • Shannon Political Family

References

Books

  • National Park Service (National Historic Site) entry about Judge Isaac Parker
  • Judge Isaac Parker reference on About.com
  • List of men executed at Fort Smith while Isaac Parker presided
  • [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556533/?ref_=ttep_ep24]