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Troy Robin King (born August 22, 1968) is the current attorney general of the state of Alabama, United States. He previously served as an Assistant Attorney General. King was appointed by Governor Bob Riley in 2004, when William Pryor resigned to accept a federal judgeship. He then defeated Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson, Jr. in the 2006 election by a 54-46% margin.

Personal

King was born in Elba, Alabama. His father was a realtor in Elba. King credits his interest in politics to being told by his father, at age 10, that a canceled family vacation was the fault of President Jimmy Carter. He is currently married to Paige King with whom he has three children; Briggs, Colden, and Asher. He is a Baptist. King received his undergraduate degree from Troy University and is a 1994 graduate of the University of Alabama law school.

Issues and Controversies

During the 2005 legislative session, Attorney General Troy King brought attention to the need for new laws requiring the tracking of released sex offenders by wearing a electronic monitoring monitoring bracelet, the kind used by parolees and others under judicial monitoring. King continued to wear the bracelet until the legislature passed tougher laws requiring the monitoring of parolees and convicted sex offenders.

King has made opposition to gambling a theme of his administration. In addition to successfully prosecuting several local eletronic gambling operations and introducing anti-gambling legislation in every session of the legislature since becomming AG, he has also opposed the expansion of gambling by the indian tribes in Alabama. In 2006, King asked the United States Department of the Interior to deny an application by the Poarch Creek Band of Indians to expand their gaming operations in Alabama. King later filed a lawsuit against the Department to keep it from pressuring Alabama to permit video gaming on Alabama reservations.

King is also a staunch proponent of the death penalty. When many states voluntarily suspended executions during U.S. Supreme Court litigation over lethal injection, King continued to seek the setting of execution dates in Alabama. King's support of the death penalty created a controversy when, in 2007, a district attorney in suburban Birmingham supported commutation of the death sentence of an accomplice, in a case where the actual shooter had escaped the death penalty because he was a juvenile. King received support in the controversy from the victim's family, and from death penalty supporters, for his stance in the case. The incident led a wide, bipartisan coalition of local district attorneys, as well as newspaper editorials, to criticize King.

In late 2006, King was forced to recuse his entire office from the ongoing investigation of abuses in the Alabama community college system, when it emerged that he had asked community college chancellor Roy Johnson to hire the mother of one of King's employees. It later emerged that King had, also during the investigation, asked Johnson for community college system financial support for Victims of Crime and Leniency VOCAL, an international advocacy group comprised of Alabama families who have been addressing the complex needs of crime victims for more than 20 years , a group which has supported King. King's office continued to provide investigative support and the investigation eventually resulted in a guilty plea by Johnson in the related federal investigation.

In early 2007, an investigative article published by The Birmingham News revealed that King and a group from his church had accepted free tickets, food, and skybox access to an Atlanta Braves baseball game from Alabama Power Company the preceding season. Alabama Power had not reported the gifts to appropriate ethics agencies as required, until contacted by the News. King attended the game in question with his family and church friends. The food bill for the outing was over $1,200 for everyone in King's groups plus others in attendance, and the skybox normally rented for $2,400 a day but King was not the only guest. Because King, as Attorney General, was legally responsible for representing Alabama Power customers before the Alabama Public Service Commission and other agencies, he was criticized by The Birmingham News for accepting the gifts. King reimbursed Alabama Power for $486 for his family's food, but did not reimburse it for food eaten by the other guests. King denied wrongdoing in the matter and agreed that Alabama Power was responsible for and should have reported the matter appropriately.

Later in 2007, Anthony Castaldo, a former investigator with the Attorney General's office who was charged with perjury by District Attorney David Barber, submitted an affidavit that King ordered him to investigate a Birmingham-area judge for political reasons. Castaldo also alleged that he was later punished when a year-long investigation showed no evidence of wrongdoing. After other investigators took over the case, King secured an indictment against the judge, but the charges against the judge were later dismissed.

After his appointment as Attorney General in 2004, King replaced former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor as defendant in the case of Williams v. Morgan. This case, originally filed in 2001 and named Bill Pryor the former Alabama Attorney General, unsuccessfully sought to enjoin the state of Alabama from enforcing a law prohibiting the sale of any “device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs,” commonly known as “sex toys.” As the state's Attorney General, King defended the law. King’s defense in the litigation, was praised by religious conservatives but it also subjected him to considerable criticism from editorial writers and civil liberties advocates, one of whom mailed King an inflatable pig sex toy. The latter incident became fodder for numerous editorial cartoons.

In 2008, an investigative story by The Birmingham News reviewed the salaries paid by King to several members of his staff. The News focused on some aides whose salaries, it implied, were excessive for the employees in question. It pointed to one aide to King who was being paid $57,504 a year – almost the salary for starting lawyers – within three months of graduating from college. This staffer, the News reported, had been paid $39,456 a year as an "intern" while still enrolled in college. The department's Chief of Staff, Chris Bence, said that the aide in question was “an exceptional young man who is the chief aide to the attorney general and who is almost indispensable in terms of the many functions he carries out in this office.,” He also pointed out that the assistant travels extensively with the Attorney General. In addition, the News noted that King is himself paid more - $164,000 a year – than any state attorney general other than California’s. The department's Chief of Staff Chris Bence said that the Attorney General's salary is tied by law to that of the justices on the Alabama Supreme Court. King was criticized in a newspaper editorial by The Montgomery Advertiser saying the salaries of the aides in question were "out of line for their experience and qualifications."

In September 2008, in the aftermath of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, King's office began processing over 2,500 complaints regarding gasoline prices under Alabama's price-gouging statutes. A month later, a King spokesman said the investigations remain "ongoing" as the prices begin to return to lower levels.

After having been mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2010, King announced his re-election campaign for Attorney General on March 9, 2009. King was an early supporter of the 2008 presidential campaign of Arizona Senator John McCain. King served as the Alabama chair of the McCain campaign.

Professional experience

• Legal Advisor, Governor Bob Riley, 2003-2004
• Assistant Attorney General, 1999-2003
• Deputy Executive Secretary, 1997-1999
• Acting Executive Secretary, 1997
• Deputy Legal Advisor, 1995-1997
• Legal Advisor, 1995.

Notes

1. "Mission Accomplished for Attorney General". The Montgomery Advertiser. November 8, 2006. p. A-2.
2. ^ "King Relies on Small-town Values as He Mulls a Gubernatorial Run". Mobile Press-Register. November 24, 2008. p. A1.
3. "Troy King". Alabama State Bar Directory.
4. "Law and Order Measures Big at Session". The Huntsville Times. July 28, 2005. p. 1B.
5. "Alabama Gambling Taskforce". The Birmingham News. March 27, 2009. p. A12.
6. "King Opposes Gambling Request". The Montgomery Advertiser. July 30, 2006. p. B3.
7. "Judge Agrees to Let Creek Indians Join Gambling Lawsuit". Mobile Press-Register. April 28, 2008. p. B1.
8. "Editorial: Hop on the Execution Train: Ol' Troy's Revving to Go". The Anniston Star. April 23, 2008.
9. "The Birmingham News". September 21, 2007. p. 5C.
10. "Letter to the Editor: Editorial Should Embolden King's Case". The Birmingham News. September 18, 2007. p. 6A.
11. "Editorial: Troy King's War on Something". The Birmingham News. October 29, 2007. p. 6A.
12. About VOCAL International
13. "State AG Solicited Target of Inquiry". The Birmingham News. January 28, 2007. p. 1A.
14. "Johnson Pleads Guilty to Kickbacks". The Birmingham News. April 1, 2008. p. 1A.
15. "King Used Alabama Power Skybox". The Birmingham News. January 14, 2007. p. 1A.
16. "Editorial: No Interests in Conflicts". The Birmingham News. April 8, 2007. p. 2B.
17. "Alabama Power Only Reported Gift Following Newspaper Query". Mobile Press-Register. January 15, 2007. p. B2.
18. "Castaldo Trial Begins Today". The Birmingham News. March 5, 2007. p. 2B.
19. "AG King Led 'Witch Hunt' to Remove Bessemer Judge, Investigator Says". The Birmingham News. September 11, 2007. p. 1A.
20. "Indictment Against King Dismissed". The Birmingham News. October 17, 2007. p. 1A. (The judge's name was also "King.")
21. Williams v. Morgan, 478 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2007).
22. Ala. Code § 13A-12-200.2(a)(1)
23. "Ban on Sex Toys Targeted". Mobile Press-Register. December 4, 2007. p. A1.
24. "Woman Fighting King on Sex Toys". Mobile Press-Register. November 14, 2007. p. A1.
25. "AG King Boosts Top Aides' Salaries". The Birmingham News. July 27, 2008. p. 11A.
26. "Editorial: King's Pay Practices Questionable". The Montgomery Advertiser. August 7, 2008. p. A7.
27. "State AG Office Receives Gouging Complaints". The Anniston Star. September 18, 2008. p. 1.
28. "Area Gas Prices Finally Return to Lower Levels". The Anniston Star. October 22, 2008. p. 1.
29. "Hubbard Keeping Options Open for 2010". Opelika-Auburn News. January 18, 2008.
30. "King to run for AG in 2010". Press-Register. March 13, 2009.
31. "Presidential Fever". The Huntsville Times. November 9, 2007. p. 8A.

External links

• Official website
• Contact info
• NAAG biography
• A.G. King's U.S. Senate testimony

• Living people
• 1968 births
• Alabama Attorneys General
• Alabama lawyers