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Troy Davis

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For the Canadian Football League running back, see Troy Davis.
Troy Anthony Davis
File:Troy-Anthony-Davis.jpg
Born (1968-10-09) October 9, 1968 (age 55)
NationalityU.S.
OccupationFormer sports coach (currently incarcerated).
Known forClaiming wrongful conviction in light of actual innocence and facing execution in the State of Georgia.
Websitehttp://www.troyanthonydavis.org

The Troy Davis case concerns the case of Troy Anthony Davis, a man from the U.S. state of Georgia who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 for the August 19, 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail solely on the basis of now-discredited eyewitness testimonies.[1] There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found.[2] Throughout the trial and subsequent appeals, Troy Davis has steadfastly maintained his innocence, claiming he was wrongfully convicted of the murder, and wrongfully imprisoned for the past 19 years. Since the trial, seven of the nine prosecution witnesses who had linked Davis to the killing have recanted or contradicted their original trial testimony, claiming police coercion or questionable interrogation tactics.[3] One of the witnesses who has remained consistent, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, was initially a suspect in the crime. Coles was seen acting suspiciously the night of MacPhail’s murder and has been heard boasting that he killed an off-duty police officer.[2] In the years following Davis' conviction, nine individuals signed sworn affidavits suggesting that the real murderer is Coles, who first accused Davis of the crime.[3]

Davis has repeatedly asked the courts to examine the new exculpatory evidence, but the courts, so far, have refused to grant him a new trial, or conduct a hearing in which the recanting eyewitnesses could be cross-examined to determine the credibility of Davis’ innocence claims. [2] Three justices of the Georgia Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, concluded that the new evidence claimed by Davis to prove his innocence justifies a new evidentiary hearing in which the recanting witneses could be cross-examined to determine their credibility,[4] but they were overruled by four justices who held that under Georgia's standards for a new trial the new evidence is not sufficient to justify a new evidentiary hearing.

Amnesty International has strongly condemned the planned execution of Davis despite the existence of considerable doubt, and has organized rallies and letter-writing campaigns to persuade the Georgia or Federal courts to grant Davis a new trial or an evidentiary hearing.[2] Many American leaders and international figures, including President Jimmy Carter,[5] Pope Benedict XVI,[6] Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu,[6] Presidential candidate Bob Barr,[6] and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions[7] have expessed their shock at Georgia authorities' plan to execute Davis without a proper, judicial examination of the innocence evidence, and have called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing.[8] Davis is currently awaiting the decision of a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals which is expected to render a decision that will determine whether it is constitutionally permissible to execute an innocent person, and whether Davis will be granted his right to have a judicial hearing to weigh the new, exculpatory evidence.[9]

The shooting of Mark MacPhail

On August 19, 1989, Mark MacPhail, an off-duty policeman, was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. The incident started when Sylvester “Redd” Coles began harassing a homeless man, Larry Young, for a beer while Troy Davis and others watched quietly from a distance.[10] Coles verbally harassed and chased the homeless man to a nearby parking lot where MacPhail was working. Coles threatened the retreating homeless man by exclaiming: “You don’t know me. Don’t walk away from me. I’ll shoot you.” Davis and others silently followed the scuffle.[10]

The homeless man yelled for help and MacPhail responded and was shot dead with a .38 caliber weapon. The parking lot was dark and the scene was chaotic. After the dust settled, the police took the statements of several onlookers but had no suspects. Redd Coles and Troy Davis were both African-American males of similar age, height and weight.[10]

The day after the shooting, a spent shell from a .38 caliber revolver was discovered near the scene of the murder. The shell was similar to shell casings recovered near a shooting that occurred earlier that evening at a pool party in Cloverdale -- not far from where MacPhail was killed. In that shooting, a man named Michael Cooper was shot. The two hosts of the pool party confirm that Coles was at the party. Davis was also at the party, but he was not with Coles.[10]

The pool party shooting occurred when four boys -- two of whom were Coles’ neighbors -- were shot at as they drove away from the party. One of the car’s passengers was shot in the face.[10] Later that evening, as Coles’ sister testified at trial, Coles got into a heated argument with Joseph Blige, one of the teenagers riding in the car. Although excluded from trial as hearsay, Coles’ sister’s police statements show that Blige exclaimed to Coles: “I know y’all tried to kill me.”

None of the boys riding in the car knew Davis or identified him as the pool party shooter, and the police search of Davis' house less than 24 hours after the shooting turned up no gun.[10]

Coles initially lied about carrying the .38 caliber revolver, but later admitted to carrying it with him on the night of the murder. He claimed that it was lost when the police attempted to recover the gun for testing.[10]

After the police swarmed his neighborhood looking for suspects, Redd Coles and his attorney approached the police to exonerate Coles and implicate Troy Davis. Before the police discovered Coles' lies, however, the police had issued an arrest warrant for Davis without corroborating any part of Coles’ story.[10] After the warrant was issued, Davis’ picture was plastered on wanted posters and in the local Savannah media. Davis who, unlike Coles, had fled to Atlanta surrendered to authorities there on August 23.[11] He admitted to being present at the Burger King parking lot, but denied shooting MacPhail. Davis stated that Coles had shot MacPhail.[10]

The police never searched Coles’ house for the murder weapon, never included Coles’ picture in witness photo spreads, and paraded Coles in front of four State witnesses as a mere bystander in a crime scene “reenactment.”[10]

The trial

Davis asserted his innocence and a jury trial was held. Davis testified at trial and denied that he was involved in the shooting of Cooper or MacPhail.[11] A ballistics expert testified at the trial that the .38 calibre bullet that killed Officer McPhail could possibly have been fired from the same gun that wounded Michael Cooper in the pool party, although he admitted that he had "some doubt" about this.[12]

On August 28, 1991, based solely on the testimony of eyewitnesses who had linked Davis to the shooting of MacPhail, the jury found Davis guilty on one count of murder and other offenses.[11] In the sentencing phase of the trial, Davis' family members and close friends were not allowed to testify, preventing the jurors from hearing sympathetic facts, leaving them to rely only on the prosecutor's characterizations of Davis and his life.[5] On August 30, 1991, the jury sentenced Troy Davis to death.[11]

Appeals

Georgia Supreme Court's First Denial of Appeal

The first set of appeals focused almost exclusively on jury selection issues. The jury in the trial was composed of seven blacks and five whites. The racial bias claim raised by Davis' lawyers was dismissed because the county in which the trial took place was about two-thirds white (and the jury pool was about 57% white) while the seated jury was 58% black. His conviction and death sentence were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1993.[13]

Denial of state habeas petitions

Davis, like many indigent death row inmates, was represented during his state habeas proceedings by the Georgia Resource Center, whose investigation of his case was hobbled after radical congressional de-funding, which slashed the Center’s budget from from $1,000,000 to $300,000, and its staff of lawyers from eight to two.[14]

As a direct result, the vast majority of the recantations and other new evidence of Davis’ innocence went undiscovered and unheard as Davis’ appeals proceeded through state courts.[14] In addition, Davis encountered restrictions on the scope of his ability to attack the conviction, due to limitations introduced by the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.[3] As a result, on September 9, 1997, the state habeas corpus court denied Davis' state habeas corpus relief. Davis applied for a certificate of probable cause to appeal in the Georgia Supreme Court, which was granted on February 24, 2000. Following briefing and oral argument, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the denial of state habeas corpus relief on November 13, 2000. [15]

Recantation of witnesses and new exculpatory evidence

In 2001, Davis submitted twenty-one exculpatory affidavits to a federal court in Georgia. These affidavits contained recantations from all but two of the prosecution eyewitnesses, the testimony of another previously undiscovered eyewitness and others with information bearing on the crime—all strong evidence suggesting Davis was not the gunman and is, in fact, innocent of the crimes for which he was sentenced to death. All the witnesses stated in their affidavits that their earlier statements implicating him had been coerced by strongarm police tactics.

One of the key prosecution witnesses, Dorothy Ferrel, recanted her testimony, stating in her affidavit that she was on parole when she testified, and was afraid that she'd be sent back to prison if she didn't agree to finger Davis. In her affidavit, she wrote:

I told the detective that Troy Davis was the shooter, even though the truth was that I didn't know who shot the officer.[16]

Another witness, Darrell Collins, a teenager at the time of the murder, said the police had “scared” him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime. He said they told him that he might never get out of prison.[16]

At least three witnesses who testified against Davis have since said that Sylvester "Redd" Coles admitted that he was the one who had killed the officer. Additionally, five new witnesses implicated Coles, not Davis, in the murder of MacPhail.[10] The only eyewitness, aside from Coles, who did not recant his testimony is Steve Sanders, whose in-court identification occured two years after the crime. As of July 2008, Davis' lawyers have been unable to interview Sanders. Sanders’ police statement on the night of the shooting stated that he would not “recognize the shooter.” This directly contradicts his in-court testimony two years later when he identified Davis for the first time at trial.[10]

Prosecutors, however, argued that under Georgia law it was too late to present the recantations as evidence in an extraordinary motion for new trial,[17] and, in addition, claimed that the "submitted affidavits are insufficient to raise doubts as to the constitutionality of the result at trial."[11]

Federal courts' refusal to consider exculpatory evidence

Citing procedural bars, the federal district court declined to consider any evidence of Davis’ actual innocence and rejected the habeas petition.

Davis appealed to the 11th Circuit Court which heard oral argument in the case on September 7, 2005. Davis argued that since seven of the nine eyewitnesses recanted their testimony and voluntarily filed an affidavit stating they lied in the original trial, he is entitled to a retrial based on his actual innocence claim. Davis' lead lawyer, Kathleen Behan, also argued that there were multiple constitutional violations in the original trial, including failure to disclose Giglio materials (referring to State promises made to Dorothy Ferrell, a key witness for the State, in exchange for her testimony) and a Brady violation (referring to the State's failure to give Davis' lawyers exculpatory evidence).

On September 26, 2006, the 11th Circuit affirmed the denial of federal habeas corpus relief, claiming that all his innocence claims are "procedurally barred."[18]

Davis' Certiorari petition to the US Supreme Court was denied - in a one-line decision - on June 25, 2007.[19]

Former FBI Director's call for a new trial

In July 2007, William S. Sessions, former FBI Director and federal judge, published an opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution calling to halt the execution process until Davis is given a new trial. "There is no more serious violent crime than the murder of an off-duty police officer who was putting his life on the line to protect innocent bystanders," Sessions wrote, but "serious questions have been raised about Davis's guilt. . . It would be intolerable to execute an innocent man."[17]

Pleas by Pope Benedict, Archbishop Tutu, Amnesty, and Congressmen

Davis's execution was initially scheduled for July 17, 2007.[3] On July 16, U.S. Congressman John Lewis spoke to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Davis's behalf, suggesting that Coles -- one of the two witnesses who had not recanted -- was the real killer.[20] The Board of Pardons and Paroles received more than four thousand letters on Davis' behalf, including letters written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu,[21] Harry Belafonte,[22] and composer and human rights activist William Rowland.[20] Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, Amnesty International US director Larry Cox, and representatives from the Council of Europe all spoke out against the planned execution.[23] The Vatican's nuncio to the U.S., Monsignor Martin Krebs, sent a letter on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to Governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue urging him to spare Davis' life. Perdue claimed he passed all the letters to the Board, since Georgia is one of three U.S. states where the governor has no power to grant clemency, and the power to pardon rests solely with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles (though the governor retains political influence by virtue of his authority to appoint the Board members).[24]

Others who voiced their support for clemency are U.S Representatives Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Sheila Jackson Lee, actor Mike Farrell, former Texas District Attorney Sam D. Millsap, Jr., and the organization Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation.[25]

On July 16, a ninety day stay of execution was granted by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles.[26] Davis' family and supporters expressed gratitude for the stay, and were optimistic about a favorable decision from the Board.[27] The Board, however, rejected Davis' petition for clemency, and authorized his execution.

The Georgia Supreme Court's 4-3 decision

On August 3, 2007, the Georgia Supreme Court voted to allow a discretionary appeal of Davis' 1991 conviction.[28] It was the first time Davis' case reached the Georgia Supreme Court since the recantation of witnesses and the discovery of new exculpatory evidence. On March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court denied the appeal by a slim 4-3 majority, with the majority writing that "These affidavits lack the type of materiality required to support an extraordinary motion for new trial, as they do not show the witnesses’ trial testimony to have been the “purest fabrication.”"[4]

However, a three-justice minority led by Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears strongly dissented, and concluded that the new evidence pointing to "actual innocence" justifies a new hearing. Chief Justice Ward wrote:

In this case, nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably. Three persons have stated that Sylvester Coles confessed to being the shooter. Two witnesses have stated that Sylvester Coles, contrary to his trial testimony, possessed a handgun immediately after the murder. Another witness has provided a description of the crimes that might indicate that Sylvester Coles was the shooter...If recantation testimony, either alone or supported by other evidence, shows convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically.[4]

Accordingly, the three-justice minority held that the new, exculpatory evidence is sufficient to justify, at the very least, an order to the trial court to conduct a hearing and weigh the credibility of Davis’ new evidence. This procedure would have given the trial court the opportunity to exercise its discretion in determining if the new evidence creates the probability of a different outcome if a new trial were held.[4]

Certiorari Petition to US Supreme Court

On July 14, 2008, Davis' lawyers filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the US Supreme Court, appealing from the Georgia Supreme Court's 4-3 decision, and asking the Court to determine that the Eighth Amendment creates a substantive right of the innocent not to be executed. If such a right exists, the lawyers argued, then the Supreme Court should determine that Georgia Supreme Court's failure to grant an evidentiary hearing to review the cumulative substance and credibility of Davis’ new innocence evidence violates the Constitution (both the Eighth Amendment and the Due Process Clause).[10]

The Innocence Project's call for a new trial

The Innocence Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people, has strongly condemned Davis' planned execution, and supported Davis' request for a new trial.[29]. The Cardozo Law School-affiliated non-profit filed Amicus curiae briefs on behalf of Davis, both in the US Supreme Court and in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that constitutional principles and fundamental standards of criminal law require the courts to grant Davis a new trial or, at the very least, an evidentiary hearing to weigh the new exculpatory evidence.[1]

Pleas by European Parliament, President Carter, and others

Although the Certiorari petition was pending, the Supreme Court initially did not stay the execution. In the meantime, Davis appealed to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency. In a resolution adopted on July 10, 2008, the European Parliament issued a call to US authorities on the case of Troy Davis. Having regard to UN General Assembly resolutions, and having regard to the case of Troy Davis, the European Parliament:

2. Asks that Troy Davis' death sentence be commuted and, in view of the abundant evidence which might lead to such commutation, for the relevant courts to grant him a retrial;

3. Appeals urgently to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Troy Davis' death sentence;

4. Calls on the Presidency of the Council and the Delegation of the Commission to the United States to raise the issue as a matter of urgency with the US authorities;

5. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Government of the United States, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, and the Attorney General of Georgia.[30]

On September 11, 2008, hundreds of people turned out for a rally in Atlanta in support of Davis' clemency bid. Despite the outpouring of support and the international attention to the case, on September 12, 2008 the State Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Davis' clemency request. The Board gave no reason for its decision.[31]

Following the State Board's unexplained rejection of the clemency request, former President Jimmy Carter released a letter urging the State Board to reverse its decision to deny clemency. In his letter, Carter stated that flaws in Davis' conviction and appeals warrant a closer look, writing in part:

This case illustrates the deep flaws in the application of the death penalty in this country. Executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice.[5]

Former Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Bob Barr also intervened and wrote the Georgia Board saying that he is "a strong believer in the death penalty as an appropriate and just punishment," but that the proper level of fairness and accuracy required for the ultimate punishment has not been met in Davis' case.[32] Subsequently, Reverend Al Sharpton also called for clemency after he met and prayed with Davis on death row.[33]

On September 22, 2008, attorney Carol Gray, who assisted the Troy Davis defense team, issued a press release calling to halt the execution until information can be obtained from a clerk at the motel across from the murder scene. Gray said that the clerk was heard screaming after shots were fired, but the clerk has so far not been identified or interviewed by either side. According to Gray, such identification could be made through existing tax records.[34]

NGOs' response to denial of clemency

In response to the Board's decision, Amnesty International condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the decision to deny clemency, and called it "a baffling and unbelievable perversion of justice."[35] Larry Cox, executive director for Amnesty International USA, added: "The U.S. Supreme Court must intervene immediately and unequivocally to prevent this perversion of justice."[31]

In addition, the National Lawyers Guild joined the call to halt the execution process until Davis is given a hearing weighing the exonerating evidence.[36]

Supreme Court's unexplained denial of petition

The US Supreme Court was scheduled to discuss in an internal conference on September 29 whether to take up the case of Troy Davis.[16] Nevertheless, Georgia's state attorneys scheduled an execution date for September 23, 2008 at 7 pm,[37] intending to carry out the execution despite their knowledge that the United States Supreme Court was scheduled to take up Davis' case the following week.[16] Ignoring calls from organizations, leaders and journalists to halt the execution until the Supreme Court made a decision,[16] Chatham County District Attorney Spencer Lawton went ahead with the planned execution, ordering that Davis be taken to the death chamber, and setting up the execution apparatus. Only a last-minute emergency stay, issued by the U.S. Supreme Court less than two hours before he was scheduled to be put to death, prevented the execution and saved his life.[8] Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker and Deputy Attorney General Susan Boleyn filed a brief with the Supreme Court asking the Supreme Court not to take the case for review, and objecting to the grant of Certiorari.

On October 14, 2008, the Supreme Court issued a one-line decision declining to hear Troy Davis' petition, without offering any explanation.[38] Emboldened by the Supreme Court's unexplained rejection of Davis' petition, District Attorney Lawton set a new execution date for October 27, 2008.[39]

New habeas petition: Executing an innocent person is unconstitutional

On October 23, 2008, Davis launched a second habeas petition, based on the new exculpatory affidavits that hitherto had not been examined in a court of law. In their court filing, attorneys argued that Davis is innocent and that his execution would violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution. Davis' lawyers added -

Mr. Davis’ execution in light of new evidence concerning his innocence is constitutionally intolerable. Society recoils at state execution of an innocent person.[40]

Davis' lawyers requested an emergency stay of the pending execution, and on October 24, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution to consider the newly-filed federal habeas petition. "Upon our thorough review of the record, we conclude that Davis has met the burden for a stay of execution," the court said in an order issued by Judges.[41] On November 19, 2008, the 11th Circuit ordered the parties to submit briefs. Chatham County prosecutors filed objections to Davis' federal habeas petition, asking the 11th Circuit to deny Davis' petition, and prevent Davis from having an evidentiary hearing to weigh the new, potentially exonerating evidence. Attempting to influence public opinion, Chatham County District Attorney Spencer Lawton also published an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution saying, "The post-conviction stridency we’ve seen has been much about the death penalty and little about Davis.”[40]

On December 9, in an overfilled courtroom in Atlanta, GA, the three-judge panel who will determine Davis' fate (Judges Joel Fredrick Dubina, Rosemary Barkett, and Stanley Marcus) heard oral arguments from Davis' lawyers - Arnold & Porter lawyer Jason Ewart and attorney Tom Dunn, and from attorney Susan Boleyn from the Georgia Attorney General's office. In the hearing, Judge Barkett criticized the prosecution for objecting to a hearing that can determine the credibility of the new exculpatory evidence, saying: "As bad as it would be to execute an innocent man, it’s also possible the real guilty person who shot Officer MacPhail is not being prosecuted.”[9] The judges will render their decision at a later date.[42]


Davis' biography

Troy Anthony Davis was born on October 9, 1968 (1968-10-09) (age 40).[19] Davis was a coach in the Savannah Police Athletic League and had signed up for service in the United States Marine Corps.[3]

Family statements

Davis' sister, Martina Correia, a cancer survivor, has been actively campaigning on his behalf. She has attended all of Davis' court hearings, often sitting in the same room with relatives of Officer MacPhail. After the December 9, 2008 hearing in the 11th Circuit Court, she addressed the concerns of the MacPhail family:

This is not family against family. We have no ill will against the MacPhail family. When justice is found for Troy, there will be justice for Officer MacPhail."[42]

On behalf of MacPhail's family, his widow Joan remarked about the successive appeals of Davis:

It's like another punch in the stomach. You have to relive that night over and over. That's so wrong. Why shouldn't we have peace in our lives?[43]


References

  1. ^ a b "Amicus curiae brief" (PDF). SCOTUS blog. 2008-08-13. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  2. ^ a b c d "Troy Davis". Amnesty International. 2008-10-27. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  3. ^ a b c d e Lowe, Brendan (2007-07-13). "Will Georgia Kill an Innocent Man?". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  4. ^ a b c d Davis v. State, 660 S.E.2d 354 (Georgia Supreme Court 2008).
  5. ^ a b c "Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Calls for Clemency for Troy Davis" (Press release). Carter Center. 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-12-08. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c "Shrapton Seeks Clemency for Troy Anthony Davis". Atlanta Journal Constitution. 2008-09-20. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  7. ^ "Reasonable doubt". The Economist. 2008-11-27. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  8. ^ a b "Stay of Exeuction for Troy Davis". Amnesty International. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  9. ^ a b "Judges differ as Davis seeks new trial". Atlanta Journal Constitution. 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2008-12-10. Cite error: The named reference "ajc 12-10-08" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Petition for A Writ of Certiorari" (PDF). SCOTUS blog. 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  11. ^ a b c d e http://law.ga.gov/00/press/detail/0,2668,87670814_87670929_121231342,00.html
  12. ^ "'Where is the justice for me?' The case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia". Amnesty International. 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  13. ^ Davis v. State, 426 S.E.2d 844 (1993).
  14. ^ a b "Brief of Former Judges and Law Professors In Support of Petitioner's Application for Permission to File A Second Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus". Amicus Curiae Brief: 4–5. November 2008.
  15. ^ Davis v. Turpin, 539 S.E.2d 129 (Georgia Supreme Court 2000).
  16. ^ a b c d e Herbert, Bob (2008-09-18). "What's the Rush?". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-09. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help) Cite error: The named reference "nytimes" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  17. ^ a b Whoriskey, Peter (2007-07-16). "Execution Of Ga. Man Near Despite Recantations: Some Witnesses Now Say He Is Innocent". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
  18. ^ Davis v. Terry, 465 F.3d F.3d 1249 (11th Circuit 2006).
  19. ^ a b "Supporters seek reprieve for death row man". Melbourne Herald Sun. 2007-07-17. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  20. ^ a b Lewis, John (2007-07-16). "Rep. Lewis' statement at Davis hearing". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  21. ^ "Letter of Most Reverend Desmond M. Tutu" (PDF). 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  22. ^ "Letter of Harry Belafonte". 2007-06-29. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  23. ^ Carrier, Fanny (2007-07-17). "US inmate's execution on hold". AFP / The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  24. ^ Eckenrode, Vicky (2007-07-21). "Pope makes plea to spare life of Troy Davis". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  25. ^ "Religious Leaders, Members of Congress, Entertainers, Civil Rights Leaders Lead Worldwide Clemency Call for Troy Davis". Amnesty International. 2007-07-10. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  26. ^ Skutch, Jan (2007-07-17). "Davis wins 90-day stay of execution". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  27. ^ Lowe, Brendan (2007-07-16). "Stay of Execution for Georgia Man". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ Skutch, Jan (2007-08-07). "Parole board bows out of Davis clemency bid". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  29. ^ "Troy Davis Set to be Executed Tuesday Despite Evidence of Innocence". Innocence Project. 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  30. ^ "European Parliament resolution of 10 July 2008 on the death penalty, particularly the case of Troy Davis". European Parliament. 2008-07-10. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  31. ^ a b "Troy Davis' clemency bid fails". Savannah Morning News. 2008-09-13. Retrieved 2008-12-10. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ "Barr, Carter both seek clemency for Troy Davis". WTVM. 2008-09-19. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ Scott, Jeffry (2008-09-21). "Sharpton seeks clemency for Troy Anthony Davis". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved 2008-09-21. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  34. ^ Weiner, Robert (2008-09-22). "Stay Georgia's Tuesday 7PM Execution of Troy Davis to Allow Critical Witness Interview Says Attorney Carol Gray, Who Assisted Defense Team". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2008-09-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  35. ^ "Amnesty International Condemns Parole Board Decision". Amnesty International. 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  36. ^ "Rally to Stop Execution of Troy Davis". Washington Peace Center. 2008-10-18. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  37. ^ "Troy Davis – Finality Over Fairness". Amnesty International. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  38. ^ "Docket for 08-66". US Supreme Court. 2008-10-14. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  39. ^ "Troy Davis Execution Set, Again: Action Taken After Supreme Court Rejects Appeal". EURweb. 2008-10-16. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  40. ^ a b "Lawyers launch new appeals effort". 2008-23-08. Retrieved 2008-12-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ "Court issues stay of execution for Troy Davis". ajc.com. 2008-10-24. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  42. ^ a b "Troy Davis Makes Case for New Round of Appeals". Atlanta Progressive News. 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
  43. ^ http://www.fop9.net/markmacphail/lookingforclosure.cfm Fraternal Order of Police information page for Officer Mark MacPhail
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