Thomas N. Nance was the kind of judge whom prosecutors wanted to see on the bench and whom defense attorneys hoped for.
"You don't always get that — justice isn't genteel in every case," said Michael Morchower of Lancaster, a retired defense lawyer who argued before Judge Nance at least 15 times during his career.
"He was very even-handed with everyone. You knew your client would get a fair trial. You never heard anything during a trial or after when Tom Nance was presiding."
Judge Nance, who was appointed to the Manchester Division of Richmond General District Court in 1977 and retired in 2002 from the Richmond Circuit Court, died Friday morning.
Diagnosed with cancer in October, the Kilmarnock resident had been hospitalized the past week. He was 75.
Services will be private.
"He was soft-spoken, very knowledgeable and very smart. He was too smart to circumvent. Everyone knew he was on top of the law," Morchower said.
Judge Nance went from district court to the circuit bench when Judge J. Randolph Tucker retired in 1981. He moved from the John Marshall Courts Building at 400 N. Ninth St. in Richmond to the Manchester Courthouse at 10th and Hull streets when Judge James B. Wilkinson retired in 2001. He sat in as a substitute judge for district and circuit court judges.
New Kent Commonwealth's Attorney Linwood Gregory noted that Judge Nance had served in that capacity in New Kent during the past five years. "He was a no-nonsense, upbeat guy," Gregory said. "He gave people a fair trial, I'll tell you that."
A Greensboro, N.C., native, Judge Nance graduated from East Carolina University. He came to Richmond in 1960 as an insurance adjuster. Three years later he entered the University of Richmond's T.C. Williams Law School.
In 1965, he began his legal career as house counsel for a mortgage banking company and became a part-time assistant commonwealth's attorney for Richmond in 1968.
"A lot of us get nervous with former prosecutors on the bench. He was one of those rare judges," Morchower said. "He wasn't partial toward prosecutors because he had been one. He took extra steps to make sure justice was done for everybody."
He served as a substitute judge and practiced law from an office on Hull Street from 1970 until he became a judge.
As a judge, he heard criminal cases almost exclusively, including three trials where defendants were sentenced to death.
Survivors include his wife, Barbara Lindley Nance.
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