Judge won't reconsider testimony in Troy Davis case

By Associated Press

For the AJC

SAVANNAH -- A federal judge says he won't reconsider testimony he refused to hear in court in the case of Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis.

Troy Anthony Davis claims that he was wrongly convicted of killing a Savannah police officer in 1989. Some witnesses have recanted testimony that helped convict him.

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U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. ruled Thursday against a motion by Davis' attorneys, who argued the judge wrongly rejected a witness who was to testify she heard another man confess to killing a Savannah police officer in 1989.

The judge ruled at a June hearing on Davis' case that the testimony would be inadmissable hearsay, because Davis' lawyers failed to call to the witness stand the man they say is the real killer of officer Mark MacPhail.

The U.S. Supreme Court granted Davis the June hearing as a chance to prove his innocence. A final ruling is still pending.