Omar Noose (born 1916) was a Madison County, Mississippi judge who presided over Carl Lee Hailey's murder trial.
Biography[]
Omar Noose was born in Madison County, Mississippi in 1916, and he pursued a legal career before being elected a judge for Madison County. In 1984, he presided over Carl Lee Hailey's murder trial, and the ambitious district attorney Rufus Buckley had members of the state legislature call Noose to influence his decision to refuse a change of venue for the trial, so that Hailey would be judged by an all-white jury; Noose faced re-election that November, and he sought the support of the Republican state legislature. Noose also refused to grant bail to Hailey, making the case hard for him and his defense team, led by Jake Brigance. However, Brigance convinced the jury to imagine the case from a white perspective, persuading them to hide their racism and acquit Hailey of his murder charges.