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| Ga inmate's execution nears; protests worldwide |
| By boston.com - Greg Bluestein - AP |
| Published: 09/21/2011 |
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ATLANTA—Troy Davis supporters in the U.S. and Europe were trying just about anything to spare him from lethal injection Wednesday evening for killing a Georgia policeman, a crime he and others have insisted for years that he did not commit. Supporters planned vigils around the world. They'll be outside Georgia's death row prison in Jackson and at U.S. embassies in Europe. The 42-year-old's most realistic, though slim, chance for reprieve is through the courts, and his lawyers are trying. His backers have tried increasingly frenzied measures: offering for Davis to take a polygraph test, urging prison workers to strike or call in sick, posting a judge's phone number online, urging people to call and ask him to put a stop to the 7 p.m. execution. They've even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention. Supporters include former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and a former FBI director, the NAACP, as well as conservative figures. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year, but ultimately didn't hear the merits of the case. Several witnesses have recanted their accounts that it was Davis who pulled the trigger in the 1989 murder of Savannah officer Mark MacPhail, and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Still, prosecutors have backed the verdict and state and federal courts have repeatedly upheld his conviction. MacPhail was off-duty working security at a bus station on Aug. 19, 1989, and rushed to the aid of Larry Young, a homeless man that prosecutors say Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. When MacPhail got there, they say Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot. Others have claimed the man with him that night has said he actually shot the 27-year-old officer. No gun was ever found, but shell casings were linked, prosecutors say, to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted. Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter. However, no other physical evidence found, including blood or DNA, tying Davis to the crime. Read More. |
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