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Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, will be the keynote speaker at Troy University’s graduation on Friday.

Marshall will address Troy graduates Friday at 10 a.m. during the university’s summer commencement exercise at Trojan Arena. Tickets are not required for the graduation ceremony and no COVID-19 related restrictions are in place for the event.

The university will graduate about 520 students from 24 U.S. states and eight different countries on Friday.

Marshall is the former district attorney of Marshall County. He was appointed as Alabama’s 48th attorney general in 2017 by former Gov. Robert Bentley. Marshall replaced former AG Luther Strange, who was appointed by Bentley to fill the seat of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions who resigned to accept the position of U.S. Attorney General under former President Donald Trump.

Marshall is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law.

Marshall helped draft and pass the Brody Act, a state law that makes it a homicide to kill an unborn child during an attack on the unborn child’s mother. The law was named after Brody Parker, the unborn son of 23-year-old Brandy Parker of Albertville. She was found dead in her pickup truck in July 2005 after leaving work in Boaz.

Marshall also became the first attorney to secure a death penalty conviction under the Brody Act in 2012. As Marshall County’s DA, he prosecuted Jessie Livell Phillips and secured a conviction in the murder of Phillips’ wife, Jessica Droze Phillips, and their unborn child. Jessie Livell Phillips was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child at a car wash in Guntersville in front of the couple’s two children.

As AG, Marshall had the opportunity to defend Phillip’s conviction during on an appeal before the Alabama Supreme Court. Phillips remains in prison.

Marshall serves as the state’s chief law enforcement officer and in 2018, launched the Initiative on Violent Crime, an initiative that helps “cities reclaim their streets, restore the rule of law, and . . . see their communities revived.” Since launching, hundreds of violent offenders have been arrested and prosecuted under the initiative.

Marshall was recently elected to the executive committee of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a nod to his demonstrated expertise and leadership on a variety of national policy issues including the opioid crisis, illegal immigration and religious liberty.