Finally Justice for Diane Whipple

by Shaker Juliemania

Marjorie Knoller was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder, for indifference to the fate of Diane Whipple, who was mauled to death by Knoller's dogs in a San Francisco apartment hallway in 2001.

It's the first time in California history a murder conviction has been handed down for dog mauling.

In rejecting a defense lawyer's request for probation, Judge Charlotte Woolard of San Francisco Superior Court said the horrific circumstances of the attack Jan. 26, 2001, far outweighed Knoller's previous crime-free record.

Woolard said Knoller had not bothered to put a muzzle on her aggressive 140-pound Presa Canario dog before taking it out of the apartment. Knoller did not call for help, retrieve a weapon or dial 911 while the animal was mauling Diane Whipple for at least 10 minutes, the judge said. A second Presa Canario that Knoller and her husband and law partner, Robert Noel, kept in their apartment may have joined the attack.

Whipple, 33, the women's lacrosse coach at St. Mary's College in Moraga, bled to death from at least 77 wounds. Knoller, 53, was paroled from prison in 2004 after serving about three years for involuntary manslaughter, but was returned to custody Aug. 22 after Woolard reinstated the jury's murder verdict. Knoller's husband, who was not home when the attack happened, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and paroled in September 2003.

Living in the Bay Area at the time, this story was continuously in the news; it was horrible. I remember watching and listening to Knoller—she didn't care; her indifference and lack or remorse was appalling. That, more than anything, caused so much of the community's outrage.

My heart goes out to Whipple's partner, Sharon Smith. Finally she can have closure.

Smith gave a statement to the court, and, according to the SF Chronicle, she looked at Knoller and said that more than seven years after "the worst day of my life and the last day of Diane's life, finally there is some justice."

CBS5 reports on the verdict:


As soon as heard about the ruling, I ran to tell my wife—we hugged, we cried. Finally.

Blub.

History of Diane's death here.