Carroll Cook

{{Infobox person

| name = Carroll Cook

| image = Carroll Cook.png

| alt =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1855|01|15}}

| birth_place = San Francisco, California

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|01|08|1855|01|15}}

| death_place = San Francisco, California

| other_names =

| occupation = Lawyer, judge

| employer =

| years_active =

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Carroll Cook (January 15, 1855 – January 8, 1915) 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.{{cite web

|year=

|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~npmelton/sfbcook3.htm

|title=San Francisco County Biographies — Carroll Cook

|publisher=

|access-date=2007-11-26

}}{{cite book

|author=Robert Desty

|year=1913

|url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtrep09compgoog

|quote=carroll cook.

|title=Supreme Court Reporter United States Supreme Court

|publisher=West Publishing Company

|page= [https://archive.org/details/supremecourtrep09compgoog/page/n245 216]

|access-date=2007-11-26

}}

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".{{cite journal

|author=Herbert G Kinnell

|date=December 23, 2000

|title=Serial homicide by doctors: Shipman in perspective

|journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.)

|volume=321

|issue=7276

|pages=1594–1597

|doi=10.1136/bmj.321.7276.1594

|pmid=11124192

|pmc=1119267

}}

The defendant unsuccessfully appealed his sentence repeatedly during the three years before his eventual hanging in 1898.{{cite book

|year=1912

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hy_aN5xSCisC&q=john+mcnulty+murder&pg=PA282

|title=Press Reference Library (Southwest Ed.)

|work=The Los Angeles Examiner

|page=282

|access-date=2007-11-26

}} Carroll also presided over the 1908 trial of Jang In-hwan for the murder of former diplomat Durham Stevens.{{cite news|title=To Try Korean Assassin; Chang, Who Killed Durham White Stevens, Will Plead To-day|work=The New York Times|date=1908-07-27|access-date=2007-09-27|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/07/27/archives/to-try-korean-assassin-chang-who-killed-durham-white-stevens-will.html}}{{cite news|url=http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/ogden9b&CISOPTR=30306&CISOSHOW=30382&REC=11|work=Ogden Standard-Examiner|date=1907-07-28|access-date=2007-11-11|title=Trial of In Whan Chang postponed}}

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.{{cite book

|year=1915

|url=https://archive.org/details/pressreferencel00servgoog

|quote=john mcnulty murder.

|title=Press Reference Library

|publisher=International News Service

|page=[https://archive.org/details/pressreferencel00servgoog/page/n603 595]

|access-date=2007-11-26

}}

Carroll Cook died in San Francisco on January 8, 1915.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43341392/judge_carroll_cook_called_by_death/ |title=Judge Carroll Cook Called By Death |work=The Recorder |page=1 |date=1915-01-09 |access-date=2020-01-31 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Footnotes

Category:1855 births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:Lawyers from San Francisco

Category:19th-century California state court judges