William Harold Cunningham (born October 15, 1944) is an American former prosecutor and former Justice of 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 was elected to the court in November 2006 to represent the first Appellate District. He announced he would retire in early 2019.

Education

Cunningham earned his bachelor's degree from Murray State University in 1966 and his Juris Doctor in 1969 from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

College of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

Early judicial career

Cunningham served the court system in several capacities before entering his judicial career. He was the Eddyville city attorney from 1974 to 1991 and public defender for the Kentucky State Penitentiary from 1974 to 1976. He served as

Commonwealth's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a lo ...

for the 56th Judicial District from 1976 to 1988. During his tenure in that position, he was voted the Outstanding Commonwealth Attorney of Kentucky by his peers. Cunningham also served as a hearing officer for the Kentucky Board of Claims from 1981 to 1985 and as a trial commissioner for the Lyon County District court from 1989 to 1992. Cunningham served as a circuit court judge for 15 years. He was elected to the Circuit Court Bench in November 1991 to serve the 56th Judicial Circuit, which consists of Caldwell, Livingston,

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

and Trigg counties. He was re-elected in 1999 and served as circuit judge until January 2007. He was elected in 2006 to a seat on the

. He retired on February 1, 2019, after a 40-year judicial career.

Personal life

Born in Eddyville, Cunningham is a native of

Kuttawa, Kentucky Kuttawa is a home rule-class city in Lyon County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 649 as of the 2010 census, up from 596 in 2000. History Former Ohio governor Charles Anderson founded the town on land he purchased in 1866. ...

in Lyon County and an author of five books about regional history, which chronicle the struggle for racial justice in western Kentucky since the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

as well as a book about the history of the

Kentucky State Penitentiary The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP), also known as the "Castle on the Cumberland," is a maximum security and supermax prison with capacity for 856 prisoners located in Eddyville, Kentucky on Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about fro ...

in Eddyville. He is a veteran of the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, having served in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. He and his wife, Paula Trull, have five sons and eleven grandchildren. His son, Joe, is a former U.S. Representative from

South Carolina's 1st congressional district The 1st congressional district of South Carolina is a coastal congressional district in South Carolina, represented by Republican Nancy Mace since January 3, 2021. She succeeded Democrat Joe Cunningham, having defeated him in the 2020 elect ...

References

External links

Justice Bill Cunningham Official Court Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Bill 1944 births Living people American prosecutors Kentucky Commonwealth's Attorneys Justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court Murray State University alumni People from Eddyville, Kentucky Military personnel from Kentucky University of Kentucky College of Law alumni 21st-century American judges Public defenders Kentucky state court judges