Johnson Tal Crawford (31 August 1889 – 1 January 1955)Find-a-Grave: Johnson Tal Crawford
accessed March 2019. was an American lawyer and jurist. He was a district judge in

Pontotoc County, Oklahoma Pontotoc County is in the south central part of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,492. Its county seat is Ada. The county was created at statehood from part of the Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory. It was named for a h ...

, United States from 1936 to 1946. In the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, he co-judged both the

Doctors' Trial The Doctors' Trial (officially ''United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.'') was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of high-ranking German officials and industrialists that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone ...

and the RuSHA Trial. The collective judgement from the Doctors' Trial led to the establishment of the

Nuremberg Code The Nuremberg Code (german: Nürnberger Kodex) is a set of ethical research principles for human experimentation created by the court in '' U.S. v Brandt'', one of the Subsequent Nuremberg trials that were held after the Second World War. Tho ...

Early life

Johnson Tal Crawford was born 31 August 1889 in Washington County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

.U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 for Johnson Tal Crawford
accessed via ancestry.com paid subscription site, March 2019.Justice at Nuremberg: Leo Alexander and the Nazi Doctors' Trial
by U. Schmidt; Publ. Springer, Jun 30, 2004. He received his law degree from Oklahoma University. He met Jessie Frank Rogers, one of the daughters of Robert E. Rogers and his wife (m. 12 October 1875 in Milton County, Georgia) Mary Avarilla Cogburn (1858–1916), and a sister of Phillip Henry Rogers (b. 23 September 1877) when she was a stenographer at the county courthouse in

Ada, Oklahoma Ada is a city in and the county seat of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,481 at the 2020 United States Census. The city was named for Ada Reed, the daughter of an early settler, and was inc ...

. They married on 3 July 1923 at the Central Presbyterian Church,Marriage of J. Tal Crawford and Jessie Rogers
accessed March 2019 via ancestry.com paid subscription site. then on South Travis Street at the NE corner of Cherry Street,

Sherman Sherman most commonly refers to: *Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name) ** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General *M4 Sherman, a tank Sherman may also refer to: Places United St ...

, Grayson County,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Jessie had also previously worked as a secretary for her brother-in-law Wallie, a local general practice physician.

District Judge

He was a judge from about 1924 then presiding judge at the District Court of Oklahoma in

Ada Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma from 1936 to 1946, a court with general jurisdiction over almost all civil and criminal matters within its sphere of influence. To be able to go to Nuremberg he resigned from the district court, but hoped to return to Ada to practice law following the war crimes tribunals. Like the other potential justices, he requested permission for his family to accompany him.

Nuremberg Military Tribunal Judge

Following the end of major hostilities in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he was appointed as a member of Military Tribunal I by U.S. President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. As a member of Military Tribunal I, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials at

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, he judged both the

Doctors' trial The Doctors' Trial (officially ''United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.'') was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of high-ranking German officials and industrialists that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone ...

(along with Walter B. Beals,

Harold Sebring Harold Leon Sebring (March 9, 1898 – July 26, 1968), nicknamed Tom Sebring, was a Florida Supreme Court justice, and an American judge at one of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials of German war criminals after World War II. Sebring was a native ...

, and Lt. Col. Victor C. Swearingen) and the RuSHA Trial.

Legacy

The collective judgement from the

led to the establishment of the

, a set of

research ethics Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

principles for human experimentation. The trials were pivotal in the development of international human rights and

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...

. His papers are held in the Linscheid Library of

East Central University East Central University (ECU or East Central) is a public university in Ada, Oklahoma. It is part of Oklahoma's Regional University System. Beyond its flagship campus in Ada, the university has courses available in McAlester, Shawnee, and Duran ...

Family life

He was informally known by his middle name "Tal" and his wife Jessie Frank as "Jess". Their daughter Talicia Diane Crawford (30 March 1924 in

- 25 September 2000 in Fairfax (County?),

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

),Talicia Crawford Smoot in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index
accessed March 2019. married George Fitzgerald Smoot Jr. on 14 July 1943 in

Escambia County, Florida Escambia County is the westernmost and oldest county in the U.S. state of Florida. It is in the state's northwestern corner. At the 2020 census, the population was 321,905. Its county seat and largest city is Pensacola. Escambia County is incl ...

, and had issue including: * George Fitzgerald Smoot III (b. 20 February 1945)

References

1889 births 1955 deaths Oklahoma lawyers Judges of the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals 20th-century American judges {{US-federal-judge-stub