When qualifying ended at noon on on March 8, the Ocumulgee Judicial Circuit district attorney had no opposition, which means another four years in the office for T. Wright Barksdale III.
The Ocmulgee Circuit covers Baldwin, Greene, Hancock, Jones, Morgan, Putnam, and Wilkinson counties, making it the largest circuit in the state. The district attorney turned 34 just two days after taking office in 2021, making him one of the youngest to do so, and he walked into a court system that had been brought to a halt by a pandemic with two death penalty cases staring him in the face.
During an interview in his office last week, Barksdale said he recently was reflecting on his past three years in the office and the past 11-and-a-half years of his career. Since the start of 2021, his office has tried 40 homicide cases and secured guilty verdicts in all but four.
“That’s an amazing statistic, and I’m proud of that. But you get there with a good partnership with law enforcement,” Barksdale said.
Barksdale began his career as an assistant district attorney in the Ocmulgee Circuit in Jones County in 2013 and moved his family to Gray the following year. He and his wife Katie have three children, now seven, eight, and 10 years old.
He took over the duties of prosecutor in Putnam County in 2015 and handled both Putnam and Hancock Counties from 2017 until his 2020 election as district attorney.
Originally from Washington County, Barksdale is a graduate of Georgia Southern and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. He interned at the Baldwin and Fulton County solicitor’s office and was hired as an assistant district attorney by the Paulding Judicial Circuit.
When the opportunity presented itself, he chose to work in Jones County because it was closer to home. Barksdale said all eight counties’ DA offices in the circuit are fully staffed, despite salaries for prosecutors in the state of Georgia being among the lowest nationwide.
The district attorney said he plans to ask for an increase in the budget for the office this year, which has not happened in 20 years. He said he also plans to ask for an increase in county supplements.
“This is a state office, and we’ll be asking for continued help,” he said.
Barksdale also expressed gratitude for local partners and the help received from ARPA funding over the last few years.
Barksdale said being an assistant district attorney is an entirely different job than district attorney.
“I knew I could do the job as assistant DA, but being the district attorney means being responsible for everything that happens. That means eight different county budgets in addition to the state budget. You’re working with 33 employees. That includes managing expectations and adjusting to hearing ‘that’s not the way I would do it,’” he said. “I jumped in headfirst and had to swim.”
Barksdale recalled when he “came through the gates,” courthouses were finally opening after being shut down by the Covid-19 virus.
“We were trying cases in auditoriums and gyms while still going through the pandemic. Major cases were popping every month,” he said. “I saw my people exhausted. This job is harder than anyone could know.”
Because of that experience, the court has changed, Barksdale said, and prosecutors had to evolve. He said he believes his relative youth was a huge asset through that time.
“It gave me the energy I needed to work at a level I may not have been able to do at 50,” he said. “I was able to push through the long hours.”
The district attorney said his decision to rely on experienced prosecutors already in the office and to bring in more experienced prosecutors was a second reason it all worked.
“I tried to take what I knew and relied on my staff who gave me input on decisions. This gave us a plan to deal with what was in front of us,” Barksdale said. “While my youth was an asset, I was also fortunate at the office that was in place.”
Barksdale said the death penalty cases of Donnie Rowe in 2021 and Ricky Dubose in 2022 stand out when reflecting on the past few years.
Rowe was convicted and sentenced to serve two life sentences, and Dubose received the death penalty for the 2017 murders of corrections officers Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue.
However, Barksdale said his proudest moment as district attorney in Jones County came Oct. 6, 2022, with the conviction of Cameren Myles Banks, Justerrious Shyhem Canty, and Jaqualan Desean Clark for the November 2017 murder of Donald Marquis Hardwick.
That trial lasted six days and resulted in guilty sentences on all counts for which the defendants were charged.
Each of the three defendants was sentenced to multiple life sentences with added years tacked on.
“You just don’t have people shot 20-plus times in their bed. That shocked the community; getting those convictions was a big deal,” Barksdale said.
Barksdale may be younger than many in the office, but he has tried more murder cases over the past three years than any other district attorney in the state. He also is alone in having tried a death penalty case during his first term.
All that said, the district attorney stressed he never wants to lose sight that his office deals with human beings.
Barksdale said people like Jones County Sheriff Butch Reece have helped mold him and helped him understand when to try to help and when to throw away the key.
“One of the things I’ve grown to appreciate more is there are defendants who we need to make the effort to put in place a resolution to help when we can,” Barksdale said.
He said his office maintains an open-door policy and he will remain accessible to the public.
He also stressed his hopes for the future include no pandemics, no record crimes, no death penalty cases, and no court backlogs.
Barksdale said he is proud to be fully staffed and proud to work with staff members who want to improve themselves.
“I want to help get them where they want to be. Many are going to school, and we want to continue to build a culture of togetherness,” he said.