Franklin D Cleckley has passed

The West Virginia Supreme Court says Franklin D. Cleckley, the court’s first black justice, has died at age 77. The court said in a news release Tuesday that Cleckley died at his Morgantown home on Monday. No cause of death was given. A civil rights attorney, Cleckley was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court in 1994 by then-Gov. Gaston Caperton. He spent 27 months on the court and decided not to run for election.