Paul Charlton was a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico

United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico

The United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The court is based in San Juan. The main building is the Clemente Ruiz Nazario U.S. Courthouse located in the Hato Rey district of San Juan...

 from 1911 to 1913.

Biography

Charlton was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

 and studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 as a classmate of future President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...

 and Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 Governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 William H. Hunt

William H. Hunt

William Henry Hunt was the United States Secretary of the Navy under President James Garfield and briefly under President Chester A. Arthur.-Biography:...

. Prior to his two years on the bench, he served as legal counsel for the War Department

United States Department of War

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

's Bureau of Insular Affairs

Bureau of Insular Affairs

The Bureau of Insular Affairs was a division of the United States War Department that oversaw United States administration of certain territories from 1902 until 1939....

, which was responsible for the U.S. Government's administration of Puerto Rico and the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

Charlton was appointed as the federal judge in Puerto Rico by President Taft in 1911. He served until 26 March 1913 and was succeeded by Peter J. Hamilton

Peter J. Hamilton

Peter Joseph Hamilton was an Alabama lawyer and historian who also served as Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico from 1913 to 1921....

. He remained in Puerto Rico, practicing law in San Juan.

In 1910, Paul Charlton's son Porter Charlton murdered his wife at Lake Como

Lake Como

Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore...

 and then returned to the United States. When the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of New Jersey....

 ordered Porter Charlton's extradition, Paul Charlton appealed in a case heard by the United States Supreme Court as Charlton v. Kelly

Charlton v. Kelly

Charlton v. Kelly, 229 U.S. 447 is a case pertaining to extradition of a U.S. citizen to Italy. In 1910, Porter Charlton confessed in New York to having murdered his wife in Italy. The Italian vice consul requested Charlton's extradition. Hon. John A...

. On 10 June 1913 the Supreme Court affirmed the extradition order.

Paul Charlton died in Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico

Juana Díaz, Puerto Rico

Juana Díaz is a municipality of Puerto Rico located in the southern coast of the island, south of Jayuya, Ciales, Orocovis and Villalba; east of Ponce; and west of Coamo and Santa Isabel and the Caribbean Sea to the south. Juana Díaz is spread over 12 wards and Juana Diaz Pueblo...

 following surgery for a carbuncle

Carbuncle

A carbuncle is an abscess larger than a boil, usually with one or more openings draining pus onto the skin. It is usually caused by bacterial infection, most commonly Staphylococcus aureus. The infection is contagious and may spread to other areas of the body or other people...

.

Sources

• "Ex-Judge Charlton Dies in Porto Rico" The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  , 5 June 1917.
• Guillermo A. Baralt, History of the Federal Court in Puerto Rico: 1899-1999 (2004) (also published in Spanish as Historia del Tribunal Federal de Puerto Rico)