By John McCann

jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

DURHAM — Talk about taking one for the home team!

A new assistant district attorney with Bull City ties has been sworn in and is drawing a salary that amounts to ...

Well, Josephine Kerr’s not getting a salary. And she’s neither an intern nor fresh out of law school and looking to get experience anywhere she can.

“God has blessed me, and he’s allowed me an opportunity to help,” said Kerr, a Jordan High School graduate who on Wednesday turns 32.

So right now she’s OK with earning exactly $0 to help District Attorney Tracey Cline prosecute a man for the 2005 murder of a convenience-store clerk. Cline’s glad she’s around.

“She’s been — just my right arm,” the district attorney said. “I was just blessed that she came along.”

Kerr, a 2003 graduate of the N.C. Central University School of Law, in June was doing environmental law with the N.C. Department of Justice. But her contract ended.

Between 2004-06, Kerr worked in Fayetteville as an assistant public defender.

Kerr wanted to get back into criminal law. So she got up with Cline.

And last week in a fifth-floor courtroom in the Durham County Judicial Building, Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin Jr. swore in Kerr as Durham’s newest assistant district attorney.

Which means Kerr has the power to push for prison time for, say, those very inmates who offered applause after Hardin made everything official.