According to newsmen who were allowed to witness the execution, Mr. Davis told members of Officer MacPhail's family that he did not take the life of their kinsman. He also said that he did not have a gun.
Mr. Davis reportedly told his executioners that he wished God would have mercy on their souls; he proclaimed his innocence before he died.
Jackson, Georgia – A mighty roar of triumph erupted in the crowd that waited in the soft shadows of evening two miles from the Diagnostic Prison.
In the vigil over the final hours before the execution of Troy Davis, a 42-year-old Savannah man convicted in 1991 for the 1989 shooting death of an off duty police officer named Mark MacPhail, they had gathered in a rolling pasture in the piney woods, prohibited from approaching any closer. National figures wept openly on camera as word came of the stay of execution.
Almost as suddenly, they groaned and wept anew as word came that it was as yet unconfirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court had granted a stay of execution.
Pacifica hostess Amy Goodman of the daily news show "Democracy Now" and Larry Cox of Amnesty International wept as they conveyed their grief on live television. Speaking with a pronounced brogue, Mr. Cox choked on tears of rage as he denounced the "grotesque" practice of execution carried out in the United States.
At 19 minutes past the hour designated for his death, Mr. Davis' lawyers in Atlanta contacted Amnesty International and NAACP officials by cell phone to say that the court had granted a reprieve good for up to 7 days while they consider the evidence in the case.
As the time went by, Mr. Davis lay on the gurney, strapped down, the needle already inserted into a blood vessel in his arm.
It was the fourth time that the execution of Troy Davis had been carried out down to the time for the needle to go in his arm, only to be delayed by court orders.
A U.S. District Court in Atlanta reviewed the case on an order fom the Supreme Court to see if there was enough evidence to order a new trial, but concluded the attorneys for Mr. Davis had presented a case that is largely “smoke and mirrors” in denying a favorable judgment.
Earlier in the day, the Butts County Superior Court had denied an application for a stay of execution, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied a plea for clemency, and the prison administration disallowed a polygraph examination Mr. Davis insisted would exonerate him in the case.
His lawyers immediately went to work faxing briefs to the Supreme Court at Washington, D.C., in an eleventh hour appeal while such luminaries as the Rev. Al Sharpton, Larry Cox of Amnesty International and Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP spoke of the “grotesque” aspect of the U.S. being one of 5 nations including Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia that routinely carries out executions of convicted felons.
The facts of the case have been assailed repeatedly in the years since the conviction was handed down by a jury. Seven of 9 eye witnesses who claimed in the trial to have personal knowledge that Mr. Davis shot officer MacPhail in the chest and face when he tried to come to the rescue of a homeless man in the parking lot of a Burger King have recanted their testimony in affidavits.
There is no weapon to present as evidence, but numerous bullets recovered at the scene of an earlier shooting matched those recovered from Officer MacPhail's body. There is no physical evidence to match Mr. Davis to the bullets.
Most importantly, the chief eye witness against him, an individual named Sylvester “Redd” Coles, who was originally one of the main suspects in the investigation, has been overheard saying that it was he who shot the policeman.
That evidence was rejected as hearsay because defense attorneys had not subpoenaed Mr. Coles to rebut the things he allegedly confessed to a third party.
The facts of the case are as grotesque as the prominent anti-death penalty protesters say the looming execution would be in the eyes of the world.
Offier MacPhail was working an off duty job as a security guard when he saw a homeless man under attack in the parking lot. Redd Coles had been arguing with him over a beer.
When Office MacPhail went to his rescue, an assailant shot him to death at point blank range. Officer MacPhail died with his sidearm still in its holster. A veteran of six years service in the Army Airborne Rangers, he left a widow and a 2-year-old daughter.
Earlier, Mr. Davis and another person had attended a party nearby and when they left, they were cursed and assailed by the occupants of a passing vehicle. A shooting injured a passenger who was shot in the face.
The Supreme Court could rule tonight or at any time in the next 7 days either to proceed with the execution, or issue a stay and reverse the case.
Jackson,, Georgia – A mighty roar of triumph erupted in the crowd that waited in the soft shadows of evening two miles from the Diagnostic Prison.
In the vigil over the final hours before the execution of Troy Davis, a 42-year-old Savannah man convicted in 1991 for the 1989 shooting death of an off duty police officer named Mark MacPhail, they had gathered in a rolling pasture in the piney woods, prohibited from approaching any closer. National figures wept openly on camera as word came of the stay of execution.
Almost as suddenly, they groaned and wept as word came that it was as yet uncomfirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court had granted a stay of execution.
At 19 minutes past the hour, Mr. Davis' lawyers in Atlanta contacted Amnesty International and NAACP officials by cell phone to say that the court had granted a reprieve good for up to 7 days while they consider the evidence in the case.
It was the fourth time that the execution of Troy Davis had been carried out down to the time for the needle to go in his arm, only to be delayed by court orders.
A U.S. District Court in Atlanta reviewed the case on an order fom the Supreme Court to see if there was enough evidence to order a new trial, but concluded the attorneys for Mr. Davis had presented a case that is largely “smoke and mirrors” in denying a favorable judgment.
Earlier in the day, the Butts County Superior Court had denied an application for a stay of execution, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied a plea for clemency, and the prison administration disallowed a polygraph examination Mr. Davis insisted would exonerate him in the case.
His lawyers immediately went to work faxing briefs to the Supreme Court at Washington, D.C., in an eleventh hour appeal while such luminaries as the Rev. Al Sharpton, Larry Cox of Amnesty International and Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP spoke of the “grotesque” aspect of the U.S. being one of 5 nations including Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia that routinely carries out executions of convicted felons.
The facts of the case have been assailed repeatedly in the years since the conviction was handed down by a jury. Seven of 9 eye witnesses who claimed in the trial to have personal knowledge that Mr. Davis shot officer MacPhail in the chest and face when he tried to come to the rescue of a homeless man in the parking lot of a Burger King have recanted their testimony in affidavits.
There is no weapon to present as evidence, but numerous bullets recovered at the scene of an earlier shooting matched those recovered from Officer MacPhail's body. There is no physical evidence to match Mr. Davis to the bullets.
Most importantly, the chief eye witness against him, an individual named Sylvester “Redd” Coles, who was originally one of the main suspects in the investigation, has been overheard saying that it was he who shot the policeman.
That evidence was rejected as hearsay because defense attorneys had not subpoenaed Mr. Coles to rebut the things he allegedly confessed to a third party.
The facts of the case are as grotesque as the prominent anti-death penalty protesters say the looming execution would be in the eyes of the world.
Officer MacPhail was working an off duty job as a security guard when he saw a homeless man under attack in the parking lot. Redd Coles had been arguing with him over a beer.
When Office MacPhail went to his rescue, an assailant shot him to death at point blank range. Officer MacPhail died with his sidearm still in its holster. A veteran of six years service in the Army Airborne Rangers, he left a widow and a 2-year-old daughter.
Earlier, Mr. Davis and another person had attended a party nearby and when they left, they were cursed and assailed by the occupants of a passing vehicle. A shooting injured a passenger who was shot in the face.
The Supreme Court could rule tonight or at any time in the next 7 days either to proceed with the execution, or issue a stay and reverse the case.
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