Seventh Circuit Solicitor Barry Barnette filed this afternoon to continue serving as the chief criminal prosecutor for Spartanburg and Cherokee counties.
The 21-year veteran of the local criminal justice system is participating in his first general election later this year. Barnette was appointed solicitor in 2011.
“We are working hard to make Spartanburg and Cherokee counties safer places to live and work,” Barnette said. “We are making progress but there is a lot of work to do.”
Barnette’s awards for his work as a prosecutor include the 2006 Ernest F. Hollings Award for Excellence in Prosecution, the South Carolina Department of Public Safety’s 2007 Prosecutor of the Year Award and the 2010 South Carolina Victim Assistance Network’s Criminal Justice Award.
Barnette, a former high school science teacher, joined the solicitor’s office as an assistant solicitor in January 1991. He was appointed Spartanburg County Magistrate Judge in 1996 and named Principal Deputy Solicitor in January 2001. He supervised the day-to-day operation of the office and served as Solicitor Trey Gowdy’s chief violent crime prosecutor. He served on the state’s Commission of Judicial Conduct from 1997 – 2001.
Barnette is a graduate of Marshall University and the West Virginia College of Law.