Troy Anthony Davis has been granted a third clemency hearing by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, which will hear his renewed claims of innocence two days before his scheduled execution.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Corrections set Davis' execution for 7 p.m. on Sept. 21 for the killing of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot in 1989. The parole board will hear presentations from Davis' legal team and prosecutors on Sept. 19.
Since Davis' trial, some prosecution witnesses have either recanted or backed off their testimony against Davis. Others have come forward and said Sylvester "Redd" Coles, another man at the scene, told them he was the triggerman. At trial, however, Coles said he fled before shots were fired, and he implicated Davis.
Chatham County prosecutors and the state Attorney General's Office have countered they are confident Davis is a cop killer who needs to die for his crimes.
Davis' case has attracted international attention, and former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and numerous civil rights groups such as the NAACP and Amnesty International have asked the parole board to stop the execution. The new execution date marks the fourth time the state has set a date to put Davis to death by lethal injection.
On the three prior occasions, Davis' execution was postponed to allow courts and the parole board to review his case. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in in 2009, issuing a stunning ruling that directed a federal judge to decide whether Davis' new evidence clearly established his innocence. That judge, William T. Moore Jr., after hearing testimony and reviewing the case, found that while "the state's case may not be ironclad, most reasonable jurors would again vote to convict Mr. Davis."
The parole board, troubled by questions about Davis' guilt, had previously halted Davis' execution in 2007, less than 24 hours before it was to be carried out. After studying the case and holding another two hearings, the parole board denied Davis' clemency request in September 2008. Since then, the five-member board has three new members.
Davis' lawyers will now once again appear before the parole board and bring witnesses the board did not hear from in prior hearings.
Quianna Glover, of Savannah, has said in a sworn affidavit that she was at a party with Coles in June 2009 when he told her he was the one who shot and killed MacPhail. She was prepared to testify before Moore at the Supreme Court-ordered hearing last year. But Moore did not let her take the stand because Davis' lawyers had not subpoenaed Coles to testify to confront her allegations.
Coles, in a brief interview in 2007, declined to discuss what happened the night MacPhail was killed.
About the Author
