Kristine Gerhard Baker

Kristine Anne Gerhard Baker (born March 30, 1971) is an American lawyer. She is the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Early life and education

Baker was born Kristine Anne Gerhard on March 30, 1971, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in 1993 from Saint Louis University. She received her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, in 1996 from the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Career She served as a law clerk for then Chief Judge Susan Webber Wright of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas from 1996 to 1998. She then worked at the law firm of William & Anderson from 1998 to 2000. She joined the law firm of Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow, located in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2000, and became a partner in 2002. In practice, her legal specialties were commercial litigation, employment law, and First Amendment litigation.

Federal judicial service On November 2, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Baker to be a District Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Notable case

On April 15, 2017, Baker blocked executions by the State of Arkansas, citing concerns over the use of midazolam, a drug used for sedation. Arkansas had planned to execute eight prisoners in the two weeks before the expiration date on one of the state's lethal injection drugs.