Troy Davis

Troy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011) was an African American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot. During Davis’ 1991 trial, several witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified that Davis had confessed to them. Although the murder weapon was not recovered, ballistic evidence presented at trial linked bullets recovered at or near the scene to those at another shooting in which Davis was also charged. After a trial before a jury of seven blacks and five whites, in which 34 witnesses were called for the prosecution and six for the defense (including Davis), he was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting, and was sentenced to death in August 1991.

Davis pleaded not guilty at his trial and maintained his innocence until his execution. In the 20 years between his conviction and execution, Davis and his defenders secured support from the public, from celebrities, and human rights groups. Amnesty International and other groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took up Davis's cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including former President Jimmy Carter, Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. Congressman and one-time presidential candidate Bob Barr, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing.

Following the original trial, seven witnesses changed or recanted all or part of their testimony; others, including a man who identified Davis as the killer, did not. Davis and his lawyers argued that the racial composition of the jury and poor advocacy from his lawyers had affected his right to a fair trial. The limited ability to appeal his conviction, due in part to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, was one reason cited for the international attention to the case. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled, but each execution was stayed shortly before it was to take place.

In 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States, voting 7 to 2, ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence". The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010, during which affidavits from several prosecution witnesses from the trial changing or recanting their previous testimony were presented. Some of the affidavits implicated one of the original prosecution witnesses, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, in the crime, and other affiants asserted they had been coerced by police. The State presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, denying coercion. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it. In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld, and the court described defense efforts to upset the conviction as "largely smoke and mirrors". Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected, and a fourth execution date was set for September 21, 2011. Nearly one million people signed petitions urging the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency.The Board denied the petition and, on September 21, it refused to reconsider its decision. After a last minute appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied, the sentence was carried out on September 21, 2011.