List of United States federal judges killed in office

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The following is a list of United States federal judges who were killed in office.

John P. Slough[edit]

John P. Slough

John P. Slough was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to serve as chief justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court. In 1867 William Logan Rynerson, a member of the Territorial Legislative Council, took part in a campaign to denigrate the judge, and authored a resolution in the legislature to have the judge removed, leading Slough to slander Rynerson publicly. On December 15, 1867, Rynerson drew a gun on the judge in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and said, "Take it back". Slough exclaimed, "Shoot and be damned!" and Rynerson fired. Mortally wounded, Slough drew a derringer but was unable to fire. He died two days later.[1]

In a mockery of a trial, Rynerson was found not guilty (by reason of self-defense), an example of the growing power of what became known as the Republican controlled Santa Fe Ring. Outcries for a nonpartisan investigation were ignored over the protests of friends in New Mexico, Denver, and Cincinnati. The historian Richard Henry Brown says that the murder of Slough "helped affirm the position of New Mexico as 'apparently the only place where assassination became an integral part of the political system.'"[2]

John H. Wood Jr.[edit]

John H. Wood Jr. was appointed by President Richard Nixon to the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. He was assassinated on May 29, 1979, by Charles Harrelson in the parking lot outside Wood's home in San Antonio, Texas.[3] Harrelson was convicted of killing Wood, having been hired to do so by drug dealer Jamiel Chagra of El Paso. Wood — nicknamed "Maximum John" because of his reputation for handing down long sentences for drug offenses — was originally scheduled to have Chagra appear before him on the day of his murder, but the trial had been delayed.[3]

Richard J. Daronco[edit]

Richard J. Daronco was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In April 1988, Judge Daronco presided over a bench trial in a sex discrimination and sexual harassment case, in which the plaintiff represented herself. On May 19, 1988, Daronco issued a written decision holding in the defendant employer's favor and dismissing the case. On May 21, 1988, Charles L. Koster, a retired New York City police officer and the father of the unsuccessful plaintiff, shot and killed Judge Daronco while the judge was doing yardwork at his home in Pelham, New York. Koster then committed suicide.[4][5]

Robert Smith Vance[edit]

Robert Smith Vance was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Vance was killed at his home in Mountain Brook, Alabama on December 16, 1989, when he opened a package containing a mail bomb. Vance was killed instantly and his wife, Helen, was seriously injured. After an intensive investigation, the federal government charged Walter Leroy Moody Jr. with the murders of Judge Vance and of Robert E. Robinson, a black civil rights attorney in Savannah, Georgia, who had been killed in a separate explosion. Moody was eventually convicted of the murder in both federal court and in Alabama state court, and was subsequently sentenced to death. Prosecutors speculated that Moody's motive for killing Judge Vance was anger that the appeals court on which Vance sat had refused to expunge a prior conviction of Moody's, though Vance had not been directly involved in that decision. Moody was executed by lethal injection on April 19, 2018, in Alabama.

John Roll[edit]

John Roll

John Roll was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. Roll was fatally shot in the 2011 Tucson shooting, which occurred on January 8, 2011 outside a Safeway supermarket in Casas Adobes, Arizona,[6] when a gunman opened fire at a "Congress on Your Corner" event held by Democratic U.S. House Representative Gabby Giffords; Roll later succumbed to his injuries, as did five other people. Fourteen others were wounded including Giffords. Roll had attended Mass earlier that morning and had decided to attend the event about an hour before the shooting.[7]

Roll lived in the area, and a Giffords staff member suggested that Roll "had simply gone to the Safeway where the shooting occurred to shop."[8] Jared Lee Loughner was taken into custody, charged by federal prosecutors with Roll's murder, and pleaded guilty.[9] Evidence gathered by federal investigators indicates that Rep. Giffords was the main target, and that Loughner may not have known he was shooting a federal judge.[citation needed]

Sandra J. Feuerstein[edit]

Sandra J. Feuerstein was appointed by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and assumed senior status on January 21, 2015.[10] Feuerstein died on April 9, 2021, after being struck by a car driven by Nastasia Snape in a hit and run incident in Boca Raton, Florida.[11][12] The driver also hit and injured a small child, and then drove five more miles before crashing. Police reported that when she was apprehended, she claimed to be Harry Potter, and that drug paraphernalia was found in the vehicle.[12]

Attempted killings of U.S. federal judges[edit]

Tillman David Johnson[edit]

In 1927 Tillman Davis Johnson of the United States District Court for the District of Utah was shot three times while mounting the bench in Salt Lake City, Utah. The assailant, Eliza Simmons was angry at Johnson for ruling against her in a case decided in 1924 involving the death of her husband in a 1910 mining accident.[13] Johnson was not seriously injured, only suffering flesh wounds to his lower body.[14] Convicted of attempted murder in November 1927, Simmons was sentenced to seven years in prison.[15]

Joan Lefkow[edit]

In 2005, an assailant broke into the Chicago home of Judge Joan Lefkow of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and murdered the judge's husband and mother there. The suspect committed suicide, leaving a suicide note containing a confession and stating that he had planned to murder the judge.[16]

Esther Salas[edit]

In 2020, a man disguised as a Federal Express delivery driver gained entry to the North Brunswick, New Jersey home of Judge Esther Salas of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and murdered the judge's son, also critically injuring the judge's husband.[16] The killer, a 72-year-old self-proclaimed "anti-feminist" lawyer Roy Den Hollander, appeared before Judge Salas and was dissatisfied with the disposition of his case. The FBI matched Hollander's gun to the murder of a rival lawyer who represented a men's rights group in California, and police found a list of other potential targets, including three more female judges.[16]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Gary L. Roberts, Death Comes for the Chief Justice: The Slough-Rynerson Quarrel and Political Violence in New Mexico, University Press of Colorado, 1990, p. 70
  2. ^ Jason Silverman, "Frontier Law: The Assassination of a Chief Justice", Untold New Mexico, Sunstone Press, 2006, pp. 68-71. For more on Rynerson, see John Tunstall.
  3. ^ a b "Texas Sniper". Time Magazine. October 25, 1982. Archived from the original on March 30, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  4. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (May 22, 1988). "Federal Judge Slain by a Gunman in Westchester". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
  5. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (May 23, 1988). "Slain Judge Ruled Against His Killer's Daughter". The New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
  6. ^ Michael Kiefer; Karina Bland (2011-01-09). "Judge John Roll respected among peers". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
  7. ^ "Reports: Judge Roll Received Death Threats Federal Judge Killed in Ariz. Was Target 2 Years Ago After Controversial Ruling". CBS News. 2011-01-08. Retrieved 2011-01-08.
  8. ^ "Judge slain in Ariz. shooting wins wide acclaim". NBC News. Associated Press. 2011-01-09. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
  9. ^ "Loughner sentenced to life for Arizona shootings". CNN. 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2012-12-07.
  10. ^ "Feuerstein, Sandra J." Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
  11. ^ "NY Federal Judge Sandra Feuerstein Killed In Fla. Accident - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
  12. ^ a b Hutchinson, Bill (April 11, 2021). "New York federal judge Sandra Feuerstein killed in Florida by hit-and-run driver". ABC News.
  13. ^ "Woman Shoots District Judge". Cornell Daily Sun. October 1, 1927. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  14. ^ "Federal Judge Shot by Widow in Court". The New York Times. 1 October 1927. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  15. ^ "7 Year Sentence Given to Woman Who Shot Judge". Reading Times. November 3, 1927. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  16. ^ a b c Wildstein, David (July 19, 2020). "Son of federal judge slain, husband in critical condition". New Jersey Globe.
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