ATLANTA (AP) – Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says he is sick of what some lawyers call the “gay panic” defense to justify attacks on GLBT people.

Some jurors must agree.

A jury has convicted James Lee Shaw, 39, in the August 2002 slaying of a co-worker at the Market Cafe in the downtown Apparel Mart.

Shaw claimed he fatally stabbed Rowland Hardwick, 53, in the restaurant’s restroom because Hardwick had a knife and tried to rape him. Shaw told jurors he suffered flashbacks to his childhood when he was molested by men.

Hardwick was stabbed 40 times. The prosecutor, Howard assistant Brett Pinion, told jurors Shaw did not have defensive wounds expected in a struggle and was upset about his co-worker’s sexual advance, not attempted rape.

Shaw was convicted of murder and other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison.

Howard issued a statement saying his prosecutors are “sick” of this type of defense.

“It is demeaning, outrageous, insulting and downright ridiculous for defendants to believe that the death of any human being is justified because he or she is homosexual,” Howard said.

Three years ago, Fulton Assistant District Attorney Ahmed Dabarran, 32, was found bludgeoned to death in his east Cobb County apartment. Roderiqus Reshad Reed, 21, of Ellenwood was charged with murder but acquitted last year. His attorneys claimed he killed Dabarran in self-defense after being forced to commit a sex act at gunpoint by a third man.