In her op-ed published Monday, Oct. 27, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia State University College of Law Professor Anne Emanuel responds to an earlier opinion piece by Spencer Lawton, the district attorney who prosecuted the Troy Davis death penalty case in 1991. Emanuel wrote that in his Oct. 21 op-ed about the case, Lawton asserts that: "The only information the public has had in the 17 years since Troy Davis' conviction has been generated by people ideologically opposed to the death penalty, regardless of the guilt or innocence of the accused."

"That is simply not true," Emanuel wrote. "And the fact that it is not true matters, just as the fact that Davis, whose execution has been stayed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, may be innocent matters."

Emanuel goes on to write: "Lawton is resorting to ad hominem attack on the moral integrity of the concerned members of the public who have stepped forward to challenge the legitimacy of using the power of the state to execute Davis. Certainly, many are categorically opposed to the death penalty. But that does not mean they are not especially concerned and aggrieved when that power is wielded without due regard for the weakness of the case against the accused."

Emanuel teaches in the areas of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, and in the areas of Wills & Trusts and Fiduciary Administration. From 2004-2006, she served as Chair of Georgia's ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Committee; that work culminated in the publication of Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems: The Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Report.

Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution piece.