William Eugene McAnulty Jr. (October 9, 1947 – August 23, 2007) was an American attorney and judge in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

who became the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

justice on the

Kentucky Supreme Court The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment and is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Prior to that the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The Kentucky Court of ...

. He served on every level court in Kentucky.

Early life and education

The son of a

mailman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

, he attended

Shortridge High School Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Shortridge is the home of the International Baccalaureate and arts and humanities programs of the Indianapolis Public Schools district.(IPS). Originall ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, and received a J.D. from the

University of Louisville School of Law The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, commonly referred to as The University of Louisville School of Law, U of L Brandeis School of Law, or the Brandeis School of Law, is the law school of the University of Louisville. E ...

Career

McAnulty became a juvenile court judge in Louisville in 1975, and was elected Jefferson County District Court judge in 1977. In 1980, he left the bench when Governor

John Y. Brown Jr. John Young Brown Jr. (December 28, 1933 – November 22, 2022) was an American politician, entrepreneur, and businessman from Kentucky. He served as the 55th governor of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983, and built Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) into a ...

named him state justice secretary, making him the first African-American to hold a cabinet-level post in Kentucky. However, he resigned a month later, saying that the position would force him to spend too much time away from his family; Brown immediately reappointed him to his former seat on the District Court. McAnulty was elected as a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge in 1983. His sister, Jean McAnulty Smith, recalled that on that particular Election Day, he decided to play one-on-one

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

against a 12-year-old neighbor, and McAnulty ended up attending his victory party on crutches. His basketball opponent was future

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

star

Allan Houston Allan Wade Houston (born April 20, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1993 to 2005. A shooting guard, Houston played nine seasons for the New York Knicks; he w ...

. As a Circuit Court judge he presided over one of the high-profile and highly emotional Trinity murders cases, sentencing Victor Dewayne Taylor to death, despite McAnulty's own moral reservations about the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. In 1990, he left the bench for private practice, but was re-elected to the Jefferson County Circuit Court in 1993 as chief judge. The Kentucky Trial Attorneys Association named McAnulty as the Henry V. Pennington Outstanding Judge of the Year in 1997. He was appointed to the

Kentucky Court of Appeals The Kentucky Court of Appeals is the lower of Kentucky's two appellate courts, under the Kentucky Supreme Court. Prior to a 1975 amendment to the Kentucky Constitution the Kentucky Court of Appeals was the only appellate court in Kentucky. The ...

in 1998, representing the 4th Appellate District, and wrote about 750 opinions in that position. In 2006, Governor

Ernie Fletcher Ernest Lee Fletcher (born November 12, 1952) is an American physician and politician. In 1998, he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives; he resigned in 2003 after being elected the 60th ...

appointed McAnulty to the Kentucky Supreme Court. After his appointment he won election to a full 8-year term in November 2006. McAnulty was a longtime supporter of the

Legal Aid Society of Louisville Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, he spoke at their office dedication ceremony in December 2006 and advocated in his position of Chair of the Metro United Way board for the establishment of their HIV/AIDS legal advocate program.

Cancer

In June 2007, McAnulty was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

that had

spread Spread may refer to: Places * Spread, West Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film. * ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers * "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album ''Speakerboxxx/T ...

to his brain. He blamed his illness on a 40-year smoking habit that he had finally kicked in December 2006, saying, "I'm paying the piper. I ain't a victim, and I ain't going to whine." He maintained a sense of humor during his illness; before surgery on July 11 to remove a lesion from the base of his brain, he joked with the attending neurosurgeon, "My only question was will this make me a UK fan or affect my political outlook. He assured me it won't, so I'm excited about that."

Injury and death

After he fell and broke his collarbone, McAnulty stepped down from the bench in early August. He died in his home in Louisville's

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...

neighborhood on August 23, 2007, aged 59. A standing-room-only memorial service was held on August 26, 2007, in the Highland Presbyterian Church. He is buried at

Cave Hill Cemetery Cave Hill Cemetery is a Victorian era National Cemetery and arboretum located at Louisville, Kentucky. Its main entrance is on Baxter Avenue and there is a secondary one on Grinstead Drive. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of buria ...

in Louisville. A bust of Judge McAnulty was unveiled in the rotunda of the State Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky, on February 11, 2010.kentucky.gov
/ref> The bust is located in the antechamber to the Supreme Court courtroom in the State Capitol.

References

External links