District: 1
Hometown: McAlester, Oklahoma; Pittsburg County
Birthplace: McAlester, Oklahoma
Tom R. Cornish received a BS from Oklahoma State University in 1966. He was awarded a JD from the University of Oklahoma in 1968. After completing law school, he served as an attorney for the Department of Institutions, Social and Rehabilitative Services. Cornish was a municipal prosecutor for the city of McAlester and was vice-chairman of the Juvenile Delinquency Committee of the Crime Commission. He was also a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Committee on Media in the Courtroom.
Cornish was a special justice on the Supreme Court and was a judge on the appellate division of the Court on the Judiciary. Cornish was appointed to the Court of Criminal Appeals in October, 1977 at the age of 35 and is the youngest appellate judge in Oklahoma’s history. He was retained in 1978 for a full six year term and was presiding judge of this term.