He is a vicious predator with a history of assault. Or, he is the kind who would not even show his teeth if you pulled his ears.

After three and a half years on doggie death row, Duke, a 5-year-old American pit bull terrier, is the subject of an unusual, last-ditch appeal of a judge’s “order of destruction” over his attacks on a neighbor dog twice in two months in 2003. His lawyer contends that Duke was wrongly convicted and harshly sentenced, based on a law that took effect on Jan. 1, 2004, two weeks after the attack, making dog-on-dog attacks subject to serious punishment. Before that, only dogs attacking humans were punished severely.