Criminal Justice Section Announces Award Recipients
The North Carolina Bar Association Criminal Justice Section has selected recipients for the 13th installment of the Peter S. Gilchrist III & Wade M. Smith Awards. The awards are named for their initial recipients, retired Mecklenburg County District Attorney Peter Gilchrist and esteemed defense attorney Wade Smith of Raleigh, who were honored in 2008 at the inaugural awards ceremony.
Pansy D. Glanton of Winston-Salem, who has served as an assistant district attorney in the Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office since 1987, will receive the Peter S. Gilchrist III Award.
The late David Freedman, a longtime criminal defense attorney from Winston-Salem and past president of the Forsyth County Bar Association, is being honored posthumously as the recipient of the Wade M. Smith Award.
Due to the limitations of the pandemic, the awards were not presented last year, and this year’s awards ceremony is pending.
Pansy D. Glanton
Pansy Glanton is a native of Durham, where she graduated with honors from North Carolina Central University in 1983. She proceeded to the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Southern University in Houston, from which she graduated in 1986.
“Words cannot express the way I feel about the Gilchrist Award,” Glanton said. “I was very surprised and very humbled when I learned of the award. My legal assistant (Kenya Turner) nominated me, and I felt very touched by her choice to do this. I am grateful and honored to receive this prestigious award and wish to thank the North Carolina Bar Association for this recognition.
“I am emotional when I speak about the award to my closest friends. Prosecutors work hard and are dedicated to the profession. We all try to follow the law and seek justice for the State and the victims. I feel that the Gilchrist Award is not just my award, but an award for all prosecutors over the State of North Carolina.”
Her nomination highlighted her work as a prosecutor as well as her deep commitment to her family, sorority, church and community. Glanton is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, an active member of Piney Grove Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, and also a member of Hype Soul Line Dance Crew.
Glanton received the Sigma Heritage Award for Community Leadership in 2014 and Community Hero Award from Exchange SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now) in 2016. For the past 30 years, her nomination noted, Glanton has served on the boards of Big Brother Big Sisters, Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, Partnership for Drug Free America, and the Exchange Club Center for Prevention of Child Abuse North Carolina.
“She has been a mentor and has supervised numerous law school students here in North Carolina,” the nomination concluded. “Ms. Glanton is known statewide as an expert in the field of prosecuting child abuse cases to include physical and sexual abuse cases. She has been a strong advocate for children here in Forsyth County for over 34 years.”
David Freedman
David Freedman, photo courtesy of the Raleigh News & Observer.
David Freedman grew up in Asheville and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1979) and UNC School of Law (1982). He practiced law for nearly 40 years, most recently as a partner in Freedman, Thompson, Witt, Ceberio & Byrd, and also served as an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Law.
Freeman had recently been selected to join the American College of Trial Lawyers and was a previous recipient of the Harvey Lupton Award from the Forsyth County Criminal Defense Trial Lawyers Association. He was a member of the NCBA Criminal Justice Section and chair of its Pro Bono Committee, and also actively involved in the N.C. Advocates for Justice.
Freeman died at the age of 64 on September 3, 2021, due to complications from COVID-19.
Scott Sexton, a Winston-Salem Journal columnist and friend, paid tribute to Freedman following his death.
“Professionally speaking,” Sexton wrote, “Freedman was respected across the width and breadth of the state. Elected prosecutors, not eager young assistants, took his calls. Freedman made a name defending men facing the death penalty and political figures charged with corruption, but his reputation was based more on relationships. It’s quite possible that he discreetly helped a neighbor’s kid (or someone you know) out of a low-level legal jam.”
“But that’s just resume stuff,” Sexton continued. “The better measure is the way he dealt with those who loved him. Freedman was all in, whether he was getting way too excited about being near a cannon at Jack’s football games at Reynolds, Ariel following in his footsteps at UNC and the UNC School of Law, Gary performing a solo in Asheville or Chai following his passion to the UNC School of the Arts. If Freedman’s children were interested, he was engrossed. And at the same time, if you were his friend, he knew where your kids went to school, their names and where their interests lay.”
Previous recipients of these awards are:
Gilchrist Award Recipients
2019 Kimberly Overton Spahos, Raleigh
2018 Howard P. Neumann, Greensboro
2017 W. Clark Everett, Greenville
2016 Howard J. Cummings, Raleigh
2015 Barton Menser, Charlotte
2014 Sandra J. Hairston, Greensboro
2013 James J. Coman, Raleigh
2012 Calvin W. Colyer, Fayetteville
2011 C. Colon Willoughby Jr., Raleigh
2010 William D. Kenerly, Salisbury
2009 Edward W. Grannis Jr., Fayetteville
2008 Peter S. Gilchrist III, Charlotte
Smith Award Recipients
2019 John P. (Jack) O’Hale, Smithfield
2018 Claire J. Rauscher, Charlotte
2017 Michael A. Grace, Winston-Salem
2016 Sean P. Devereux, Asheville
2015 Thomas C. Manning, Raleigh
2014 Mark W. Owens Jr., Greenville
2013 Fredrick G. Lind, Greensboro
2012 James E. Ferguson, Charlotte
2011 Joseph B. Cheshire V, Raleigh
2010 James P. Cooney III, Charlotte
2009 Locke T. Clifford, Greensboro
2008 Wade M. Smith, Raleigh
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.