RALEIGH, NC (Legal Newsline) - District Court Judge Beth Freshwater Smith, conservative candidate for the Court of Appeals, has been endorsed by Republican lawmakers, law enforcement, district attorneys, and even some of Chief Judge Donna Stroud’s (Freshwater Smith's opponent in the primary) colleagues on the bench.
“…some of Stroud’s colleagues on the Court of Appeals including Jefferson Griffin and Jeff Carpenter, have made public their support for Freshwater Smith,” The North State Journal (NSJ) reports.
Freshwater Smith is one of three judicial candidates supported by the group, True Conservative Judges; the other two are Michael Stading, running for the Court of Appeals, and Trey Allen, running for Supreme Court.
Beth Freshwater Smith
| votefreshwatersmith.com
Her support is earned from 34 years of legal experience with 29 of those years as a prosecutor in Wilson, Nash and Edgecombe Counties.
She was one of the first women in North Carolina to successfully prosecute a capital murder case, and she has tried cases ranging from murder to traffic tickets, according to her bio posted on her campaign website.
On District Court, the 63-year-old jurist has handled “thorny legal matters including child custody, divorce, child support, termination of parental rights, civil lawsuits, domestic violence and setting defendants’ bonds reach her courtroom regularly,” the Wilson Times reports.
“I’ve been out here in the trenches working those laws,” she told the paper.
She was one of only 14 prosecutors from across the country chosen to serve on the National Juvenile Prosecutors Leadership Network at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
She touts her adherence to the rule of law, not a personal agenda.
“I believe that in order to have equal justice, the laws must be followed as written, based on the Constitution,” she told the News & Observer.
Some of the acrimony on the court surrounding Stroud goes back to her hiring of Eugene Soar, who was previously registered as a Democrat, sources told the NSJ.
Soar changed his vote to unaffiliated after taking the position, the paper reported.
In an email to supporters, Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin wrote: “I have had a significant number of people ask me about the three statewide primary races on the Republican ticket. I am placing my recommendations below. I know all of these candidates and they would serve NC well in the seats they are running for.” He listed Allen, Freshwater Smith, and Stading.
Freshwater Smith and her husband, Richard Smith, are the parents of two children, one a junior at North Carolina State University and the other a third-year law student at Campbell Law.
Fifteen judges on the Court of Appeals, the state's intermediate appellate court, hear cases in panels of three. The Court reviews the proceedings that occurred in the trial courts for errors of law or legal procedure; it decides only questions of law – not questions of fact, according to the court’s website.
The primary is May 17.