Elliott Sandford (1840 – 1897)Clifford L. Ashton,
Utah: The Territorial and District Courts
, chapter 5 in James K. Logan, ''The Federal Courts of the Tenth Circuit: A History'' (1992), p. 156-57. was chief justice of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

of the

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state. ...

from 1888 to 1889. Born in

Raynham, Massachusetts Raynham () is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located approximately south of Boston and northeast of Providence, Rhode Island. The population was 15,082 at the 2020 census. It has one village, Raynham Center. History ...

, Sandford received his undergraduate degree from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

and his law degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He practiced law primarily in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, until President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

appointed him as Chief Justice of the Utah Territorial Supreme Court in 1888 to succeed

Charles S. Zane Charles Shuster Zane (March 2, 1831 – March 29, 1915) was a legal associate of Abraham Lincoln, an anti-polygamy judge in the Territorial Supreme Court in Utah Territory, and the first chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court after statehood ...

. As Chief Justice, Sandford was "severely criticized during this period for the leniency shown in both lack of prosecution and punishment of offenses under the anti-polygamy laws". Shortly after

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

was inaugurated to succeed Cleveland, Sandford drafted a letter of resignation, which he submitted two months later upon request from the administration. Sandford then returned to private practice in New York. He was succeeded on the court by the reappointment of Zane.

References

1840 births 1897 deaths People from Raynham, Massachusetts Amherst College alumni Columbia Law School alumni Justices of the Utah Supreme Court {{US-state-judge-stub