Condemned Ga. inmate has much support, little hope
By GREG BLUESTEIN - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 37 mins ago
ATLANTA (AP) — Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit.
He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures: urging prison workers to strike or call in sick, asking prosecutors to block the execution — even considering a desperate appeal for White House intervention.
He has gotten support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year. State and federal courts, however, repeatedly upheld his conviction for the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard in Savannah when he was shot dead rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked.
Davis' attorneys say he was convicted based on flawed testimony that has been largely recanted by witnesses, but prosecutors and MacPhail's relatives say they have no doubt the right man is being punished.
"Justice was finally served for my father," said Mark MacPhail Jr., who was an infant when his father was gunned down. "The truth was finally heard."
As Davis' attorneys considered filing another appeal, his supporters planned vigils and rallies around the world. Nearly 1 million signed a petition seeking clemency, according to Amnesty International.
"We've been praying about it and with God on our side anything can happen," DeJaun Correia-Davis, the condemned man's 17-year-old nephew, told a rally of hundreds in front of the Georgia Capitol late Tuesday. "Let this be a case that not only highlights the death penalty but will hopefully be a big part in bringing it to an end."
Georgia initially planned to execute Davis in July 2007, but the pardons board granted him a stay less than 24 hours before he was to die. The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in a year later and halted the lethal injection just two hours before he was to be executed. And a federal appeals court halted another planned execution a few months later.
This time, state officials are confident this lethal injection will be carried out. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency. Davis supporters are calling on Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm to block the execution. But the prosecutor said in a statement Tuesday he's powerless to withdraw an execution order for Davis issued by a state Superior Court judge.
"We appreciate the outpouring of interest in this case; however, this matter is beyond our control," Chisolm said.
Spencer Lawton, the prosecutor who secured Davis' conviction in 1991, said he has no doubt he is guilty.
"What we have had is a manufactured appearance of doubt which has taken on the quality of legitimate doubt itself. And all of it is exquisitely unfair," Lawton said. --
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