Wright was born in Baltimore, Maryland, raised in Princeton, New Jersey, and spent the majority of his adult life living in Harlem, New York.
Judge Wright was soon publicly critical of the judicial system and voiced his belief that race and class all too frequently determined the outcomes of trials.
)[8] In another case involving a man named Seymour Popkin, who had been charged in the beating of another man to death in a fistfight in Times Square, Judge Wright released him on his own recognizance after an assistant district attorney declined to release the name of a potential witness, despite Popkin's criminal record extending back 20 years.
[2][15] The controversy promptly resumed, with the Transit Police union making their first complaint about Judge Wright a week after he returned to the Criminal Court bench.
[16] It peaked in April 1979, when Jerome Singleton was charged with slashing the throat of a white decoy officer, Robert Bilodeau.
[20] Throughout his career, Wright held onto his belief that the judicial system, including bail, was stacked against poor and minority defendants.
[2]Judge Wright spent 25 years on the bench hearing criminal and civil cases, and had a reputation as a scholarly and provocative jurist who sprinkled his opinions with literary quotations.
[2] He taught as visiting scholar at Adelphi University, Garden City, New York in the African American Studies Department a course entitled, Law Against Minorities.
[citation needed] Judge Wright died in his sleep on March 24, 2005, at his home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut at the age of 87.