ATLANTA — James White is Fulton County's newest prosecutor. It's a job - a second chance - even he finds hard to believe.
White spent two years in prison, convicted of armed robbery in Coweta County in 2005.
“By 17, I quit school like everyone in my household and by 21, I was in prison like most of the young Black guys in my community," he said.
While locked up, White decided to educate himself.
“Man, I just, I became an encyclopedia," he said. "Just reading, reading, reading.”
He got his GED and two years after his release, a friend helped him enroll in Benedict College in South Carolina.
White graduate summa cum laude, top of his class, and became student body president. He said he "just went all in" on his education.
Still, his felony conviction as a young man stood as a roadblock to his goal of becoming an educator himself.
But he learned there was a chance he could practice law.
“You can actually still get into law school as a convicted felon," White said. "You have to spell everything out. Every detail. Holding nothing back. That’s what I did.”
Under Georgia's first offender law, prosecutors in Coweta County agreed to seal his felony record - allowing him to take the bar exam. And in 2020, White graduated law school at Ohio State University.
As of this week, he's now an assistant prosecutor in the Fulton County Solicitor's Office, working in the second chance diversion program under Solicitor General Keith Gammage.
“I think he’s compassionate about the fact that he committed an offense and made a mistake," Gammage said. "And I think he’s highly motivated to protect victims, but also having that beating heart of compassion to determine who deserves a second chance.
Of his new role, White asked: "Who better than me?"
“Who better than someone who has been through the criminal justice system? Who has made the mistakes and who has had the foresight to say you know what I need to take accountability," he added.
White's swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday occurred inside of a packed courtroom.
And in the front row? The man he robbed more than 15 years ago, offering forgiveness and support for this second chance.