Justice John Taliaferro McKinney
(Sixth Justice)

Justice McKinney was born in 1796, in Caroline County, Virginia, and died March 4, 1837, at Brookville, Indiana.⁴⁰⁶

He was admitted to the Indiana bar on March 15, 1815. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to fistfighting in court and was fined five dollars. He practiced law in Brookville, Indiana. McKinney served two terms as an Indiana State Representative and three terms as an Indiana State Senator. He served in the senate until January 28, 1831, when he was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court. He apparently saw military service during the War of 1812, but his biographical records are sketchy. Unfortunately, he contracted tuberculosis and died during his term of office.⁴⁰⁷

Source: Browning, Minde C., Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt. "Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices." Indiana Law Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, 1997. View this source in PDF format.