President Donald Trump on Monday nominated an Indian American Anuraag Singhal as a federal judge in Florida to replace James I. Cohn.  

Singhal, who is currently on the 17th Circuit Court in Florida, is among the 17 judiciary nomination sent by the White House to the Senate. He is the first Indian American to be nominated for this position in Florida.

The senate judiciary committee is scheduled to announce the name for the United States district judge for the southern district of Florida on Wednesday.  

Singhal’s parents, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, migrated to the U.S. in 1960. His father was a research scientist with Exxon.

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According to a media report, Singhal is most famous for representing the notorious Aileen Wuornos, a serial killer who murdered seven men in Florida. Although Singhal did not represent the serial killer at the time of the trial, he represented her in a lawsuit when she accused prison guards of "harassing her to death".

"Aileen was difficult to represent because she had volunteered for the death penalty. She wanted to go," Singhal had told India-West in 2012 after he was appointed to the circuit court.

"I tried to talk her out of it. I tried to get her re-evaluated. I wanted to keep her from getting executed," Singhal told the newspaper.  

Then-Governor Rick Scott appointed Singhal to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court in 2011, where he currently serves.

By Sowmya Sangam