Carroll Cook

Carroll Cook (January 15, 1855 – January 8, 1915)[1][2] was an attorney and judge for the Superior Court in San Francisco. He was best known for the national attention drawn to some of his rulings in famous cases, several of which were upheld by the United States Supreme Court.[1][3]

Carroll Cook
Born(1855-01-15)January 15, 1855
San Francisco, California
DiedJanuary 8, 1915(1915-01-08) (aged 59)
San Francisco, California
OccupationLawyer, judge

Cases

Judge Cook, in the case of Cordelia Botkin, made the first decision for a crime committed in two different states, Delaware and California. The defendant received a life sentence, a ruling upheld by the United States Supreme Court. In a case known as the "Gas Pipe Thugs" Judge Cook sentenced a defendant who pleaded guilty to hanging without a jury trial, a sentence that the Appellate Court upheld. He also sentenced to death the medical student, Theodore Durrant, who was convicted in November 1895, for the murder of two young women nine days apart in a church. These became known as the "belfry murders".[4] The defendant unsuccessfully appealed his sentence repeatedly during the three years before his eventual hanging in 1898.[5][6] Carroll also presided over the 1908 trial of Jang In-hwan for the murder of former diplomat Durham Stevens.[7][8]

As an attorney, Cook defended John McNulty, on his appeal of his death penalty sentence, for whom the gallows was erected eight separate times. Cook stayed the execution and, taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, had the sentence reduced to six years in prison.[6]

Carroll Cook died in San Francisco on January 8, 1915.[2]

Footnotes
  1. "San Francisco County Biographies — Carroll Cook". Retrieved November 26, 2007.
  2. "Judge Carroll Cook Called By Death". The Recorder. January 9, 1915. p. 1. Retrieved January 31, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Robert Desty (1913). Supreme Court Reporter United States Supreme Court. West Publishing Company. p. 216. Retrieved November 26, 2007. carroll cook.
  4. Herbert G Kinnell (December 23, 2000). "Serial homicide by doctors: Shipman in perspective". PubMed Central. Retrieved November 26, 2007.
  5. Press Reference Library (Southwest Ed.). The Los Angeles Examiner. p. 282. Retrieved November 26, 2007.
  6. Press Reference Library. International News Service. 1915. p. 595. Retrieved November 26, 2007. john mcnulty murder.
  7. "To Try Korean Assassin; Chang, Who Killed Durham White Stevens, Will Plead To-day". The New York Times. July 27, 1908. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
  8. "Trial of In Whan Chang postponed". Ogden Standard-Examiner. July 28, 1907. Retrieved November 11, 2007.


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