Georgia: board rejects clemency appeal for Troy Davis

Troy Davis

The execution of Troy Davis looks set to go ahead on Wednesday after the Georgia Board of Paroles and Pardons rejected appeals for clemency at a hearing in Atlanta today. More than 650,000 people from around the world - including Pope Benedict, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,the Archbishop of Atlanta, Wilton Gregory, the European Parliament and former President Jimmy Carter have called for the execution to be halted.

Pro-death penalty figures, including former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, former Texas Governor Mark White, and Norman Fletcher, a former Georgia Supreme Court Justice have also voiced their opposition to the execution, because the evidence looks so unsafe.

Davis was accused of killing a policeman in 1989. Since then seven out of the nine key witnesses who implicated him have recanted their evidence, several saying they were cajoled by police into giving false eye-witness statements. Another 10 have come forward to point the finger at a separate man who was present at the scene of the murder, Sylvester Coles.

No forensic or DNA evidence linking Davis to the shooting has ever been found, and nor has the murder weapon. Davis has always denied the crime.

Troy Davis has been kept on Death Row for 20 years, and taken to the execution chamber four times. Campaigners describe his incarceration and treatment in prison over those past 20 years as 'sustained torture'.

Hundreds of people have been protesting against the execution. On hearing the news that the appeal had been rejected, Rev Marvin Morgan, 63, a minister at Atlanta's First Congregational United Church of Christ, chained himself to the flagpole outside the government building and was arrested for trespass. He said: "I am not insane. I believe this act indicates my sanity more than anything else."

In 2010 there were 46 executions in the USA: 44 by lethal injection, one by electric chair (in Virginia), and one by firing squad (in Utah).

Amnesty USA is still running a petition appealing for a last minute reprieve at: www.amnestyusa.org/