William E. McAnulty Jr.

The son of a mailman, he attended Shortridge High School, Indiana University, and received a J.D. from the University of Louisville School of Law.[2][3]

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. 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.[4] 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 against a 12-year-old neighbor, and McAnulty ended up attending his victory party on crutches. His basketball opponent was future NBA star Allan Houston.[4] 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.[3]

In 1990, he left the bench for private practice, but was re-elected to the Jefferson County Circuit Court in 1993 as chief judge.[5] 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 in 1998, representing the 4th Appellate District, and wrote about 750 opinions in that position. In 2006, Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed McAnulty to the Kentucky Supreme Court.[2] After his appointment he won election to a full 8-year term in November 2006.[6] McAnulty was a longtime supporter of the Legal Aid Society of Louisville, 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.[7]

In June 2007, McAnulty was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread 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."[1] 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."[1]

After he fell and broke his collarbone, McAnulty stepped down from the bench in early August.[3] He died in his home in Louisville's Highlands neighborhood on August 23, 2007, aged 59.[2] A standing-room-only memorial service was held on August 26, 2007, in the Highland Presbyterian Church. He is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.[8] A bust of Judge McAnulty was unveiled in the rotunda of the State Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky, on February 11, 2010.[9] The bust is located in the antechamber to the Supreme Court courtroom in the State Capitol.

• List of African-American jurists

• Official Kentucky Courts profile