Diane Alexis Whipple was an American lacrosse player and college coach. She was killed in a dog attack in San Francisco on January 26, 2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canarios: a male named Bane and a female named Hera. Paul Schneider, the dogs' owner, is a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is serving three life sentence terms in state prison. The dogs were looked after by Schneider's attorneys, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, a husband and wife who lived in the same apartment building as Diane Whipple. After the fatal attack, the state brought criminal charges against the attorneys. Robert Noel, who was not present during the attack, was convicted of manslaughter. Marjorie Knoller, who was present, was charged with implied-malice second-degree murder and convicted by the jury. Knoller's murder conviction, an unusual result for an unintended dog attack, was rejected by the trial judge but ultimately upheld. The case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.
David Colbreth Broderick was an attorney and politician, elected by the legislature as Democratic U.S. Senator from California. Born in Washington, DC, to Irish immigrant parents, he lived in New York until moving to California during the Gold Rush. He was a first cousin of politicians Andrew Kennedy of Indiana and Case Broderick of Kansas.
David Smith Terry was a California jurist and Democratic politician, who was the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, and an author of the Constitution of 1879. He also won a duel with U.S. Senator David C. Broderick in Broderick's second duel in 1859. Terry died on August 14, 1889, when he was shot by Deputy U.S. Marshal David Neagle after he attacked Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field.
Stephen Johnson Field was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from May 20, 1863, to December 1, 1897, the second longest tenure of any justice. Prior to this appointment, he was the fifth Chief Justice of California.
Lorenzo Sawyer was an American lawyer and judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court of California in 1860 and served as the ninth Chief Justice of California from 1868 to 1870. He served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Ninth Circuit and of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is best known for handing down the verdict in the case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company; his verdict is frequently referred to as the "Sawyer Decision."
William Thompson Wallace was the 12th Chief Justice of California and the 6th Attorney General of California. He served on the Supreme Court of California from 1871 to 1879 and as Attorney General from 1856 to 1858.
In re Neagle, 135 U.S. 1 (1890), is a United States Supreme Court decision holding that federal officers are immune from State prosecution when acting within the scope of their federal authority.
Cecil Francis Poole was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and a United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. He was the first African American to serve as a United States Attorney, the first African American to serve as a Judge of the Northern District of California and the second African American to serve as a Judge of the Ninth Circuit.
Zachariah "Zach" Montgomery was a publisher, lawyer, politician, and author, particularly known for his skills as an orator.
Francis Joseph "Frank" Heney was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. Heney is known for killing an opposing plaintiff in self-defense and for being shot in the head by a prospective juror during the San Francisco graft trials. In 1891, while an attorney in Tucson, Arizona Territory, he defended the abused wife of John C. Handy. Handy attacked Heney, who shot and killed Handy. Heney later served as Attorney General of the Arizona Territory between 1893 and 1895. He was the chief prosecutor of the Oregon Land Fraud scandal from 1904 to 1910 and served as US District Attorney for the District of Oregon, from January 9 to December 3, 1905. He prosecuted corrupt San Francisco politicians, from 1906 to 1908.
Rancho San Mateo was a 6,439-acre (26.06 km2) Mexican land grant on the San Francisco Peninsula, in present day San Mateo County, California.
Lucy Haeran Koh is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is the first Korean American woman to serve on a federal appellate court in the United States. She is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
U.S. President Barack Obama nominated over 400 individuals for federal judgeships during his presidency. Of these nominations, Congress confirmed 329 judgeships, 173 during the 111th & 112th Congresses and 156 during the 113th and 114th Congresses.
Sarah Althea Hill was a socialite, mistress, and mentally unstable woman with a history of violent behavior who became a national celebrity when she sued millionaire Senator William Sharon for divorce, citing adultery, in 1883. She claimed he had secretly married her three years earlier in a private contract. She was known to carry a small-caliber Colt revolver in her purse and did not hesitate to threaten all who crossed her. The divorce case and related lawsuits set legal precedent and spawned numerous spinoff lawsuits that dragged on for nearly a decade. Two months after Sharon died, she married her attorney David S. Terry.
Emmett Seawell was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from January 8, 1923, to July 7, 1939.
Jeremiah Francis Sullivan was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from November 22, 1926, to January 3, 1927.
Daniel Paul Collins is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Sarah Elizabeth Pitlyk is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
David Butler Neagle was a Deputy U.S. Marshal who, while guarding Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field, killed former California Chief Justice David S. Terry when he assaulted Field. Neagle was arrested by the county sheriff and charged with murder. Insisting he was acting within his capacity as a federal marshal, his case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in In re Neagle affirmed the executive branch's right to protect judges and the supremacy of federal law over state law.
