Parker, Isaac Charles (1838-1896), was an American judge famous for administering harsh justice. He became known as a “hanging judge” because of the many death sentences he handed down during his 21 years as a federal justice.
In 1875, United States President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Parker justice of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, which was based in Fort Smith. The court had jurisdiction over the western counties of Arkansas and all of the Indian Territory, the huge Indian reservation that covered what is now Oklahoma. The Indian Territory did have courts of its own, administered by the Indian residents, but those courts handled cases that involved only Indians. The District Court tried cases that arose between Indians and non-Indians.
Parker passed a sentence of death on any defendant found guilty of murder. During his District Court career, 79 people were hanged.
Parker’s court was unusual because, until 1889, those who were convicted and sentenced had no right of appeal to a higher court. In 1889, however, Congress approved laws that allowed the Supreme Court of the United States to review Fort Smith death-penalty cases. In that same year, a federal court system was established in the Indian Territory, and the jurisdiction of the Arkansas District Court was greatly reduced.
Parker was born on Oct. 15, 1838, near Barnesville, Ohio. He became a lawyer in 1859 and moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, to work in his uncle’s law firm. During the 1860’s, he served as a city attorney, a county prosecutor, and a state judge. Parker represented Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1871 until 1875, when he was appointed to the District Court. He died on Nov. 17, 1896.
See also Fort Smith National Historic Site .
