
Justice Samuel T. Wright III of the 7th Supreme Court District will be invested formally in ceremonies conducted in the Supreme Court Courtroom at the Capitol building in Frankfort at 11 a.m. on Monday, December 7.
Justice Wright was elected to the Supreme Court in November and took the oath of office on the Letcher County Courthouse steps on November 23.
Justice Wright attended Hazard Community College where he obtained an Associate’s Degree. He graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1978 and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1981.
Working his way through college, he spent his summers employed at a coal tipple. After graduating from Law School, he returned to Eastern Kentucky.
He joined the law first of Cook and Wright in 1982. In 1989 he opened his own law practice. He married his college sweetheart and they have two sons who have remained in the region — one as a wildlife biologist and one studying computer programming.
Justice Wright worked as a trial judge for more than 23 years. He was appointed as District Judge by Governor Brereton Jones in 1992 and then won the office by election. He was appointed and then elected to the position of Circuit Judge of the 47th Judicial Circuit Court in 1993 and has been re-elected in 1999, 2006, and 2014.
As a Judge, Same Wright established the first Parent Education Clinic in Eastern Kentucky. The clinic helps parents going through divorce navigate that difficult situation with greater focus on the best interests of their children.
In 2004 Justice Wright obtained a grant to start a Drug Court to provide treatment and support for substance addition recover in individuals with criminal convictions. The Drug Court Program provides both mental health services and court monitoring.
The Letcher County Fiscal Court unanimously passed a resolution describing the results achieved by Judge Wright’s Drug Court as “amazingly successful.” Justice Write obtained a grant in 2015 to expand his drug court.
From Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts