Hanging Judge

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Hanging Judge is an unofficial term for a judge who has gained renown for handing out sentences of death by hanging or perhaps other harsh sentences.

The term is not necessarily negative. In the United States the term "hanging judge" often refers to the highly respected federal judge Isaac Parker who brought some order to his lawless jursdiction in modern-day Arkansas. In his twenty-one years he hanged 79 men (during the same period, over 60 US Marshals and Deputy US Marshals were murdered serving in Parker's lawless jurisdiction).

A "hanging judge" may be legally mandated, or may not be, in which case he may be presiding over lynchings.

[edit] Reputed cases of the nickname

• Roy Bean, U.S. Justice of the Peace
• Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie
• George Jeffreys in England
• The Hanging Judges of Manila, known as the Guillotine Club
• Isaac Parker, who had jurisdiction over the Indian Territory (Arkansas) in the United States from 1875 to 1896
• Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali
• Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton
• Joseph Needham (judge)

[edit] Other use

• A track on the Sodom album 'Til Death Do Us Unite

[edit] See also

• Lynching

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