Vigorous criminal defense lawyers do not merely protect the interests of those accused of crime; more importantly, competent criminal defenders secure and vindicate the rights and liberties of everyone, exactly because they constitute a necessary brake on the overzealous and otherwise unrestrained exercise of governmental power.

Every Tennessean, therefore, has a stake in what happens to Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman, and even those who generally support capital punishment should oppose the execution of a man who was put on trial for his life without a competent lawyer to defend him.

To extinguish a life in these circumstances will not only be an injustice to Abdur'Rahman but will also be, in this anniversary year of Gideon vs. Wainwright, an affront to fundamental democratic values that ought to be emblematic of the state of Tennessee.