After 30 years, Danny Porter still fighting

In his cargo pants and faded buttoned shirt, Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter doesn’t fit the mold of a suit-and-tie prosecutor as he ambles through the halls of the justice center.

But during 30 years as a county prosecutor — nearly 20 as District Attorney — Porter has never been one to conform. Supporters say his utilitarian attire outside of court matches his philosophy of being a hands-on prosecutor. He still shows up at crime scenes, teaches new recruits at the Gwinnett police training academy and remains among Georgia’s most accessible and longest-serving district attorneys.

“He doesn’t have to go out on a lot of the scenes that he goes out on, but he does,” said State Court Judge Pam South, who worked as an assistant district attorney under Porter for 10 years. “He wants to be there and wants to know exactly what’s going on.”

In Sunday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at Danny Porter's long career as a county prosecutor. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.