The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole has denied clemency for death-row inmate Troy Davis.
Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of Savannah, Georgia, police officer Mark MacPhail.
Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia.
"Monday September 19, 2011, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles met to consider a clemency request from attorneys representing condemned inmate Troy Anthony Davis. After considering the request, the Board has voted to deny clemency," the board said in a statement Tuesday morning.
The five-member parole board votes in a secret ballot.
Davis has gained international support for his long-standing claim that he did not kill MacPhail. International figures including Pope Benedict XVI, Desmond Tutu, and former President Jimmy Carter, entertainers such as Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte, and the Indigo Girls, and others have joined with Amnesty International, the NAACP and other groups in supporting Davis' efforts to be exonerated.
He has been scheduled to die three times before, most recently in October 2008, when the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay two hours before he was to be executed.
Since Davis' conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony. There also have been questions about the physical evidence - and, according to some, the lack thereof - linking Davis to the killing.
Amnesty International reacted angrily to the clemency denial on Tuesday.
"It is unconscionable that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied relief to Troy Davis. Allowing a man to be sent to death under an enormous cloud of doubt about his guilt is an outrageous affront to justice," Amnesty International said in a statement Tuesday.
"Should Troy Davis be executed, Georgia may well have executed an innocent man and in so doing discredited the justice system," the statement said.
But the victim's mother, Anne MacPhail, said she's satisfied that Davis will be executed.
"Well, justice is done, that's the way we look at it. That's what we wanted," the mother told CNN. "I am very convinced that he is guilty."
She said she would not attend Davis' execution but family members would be there.
Anne MacPhail said she has not forgiven the convicted of killing her son.
"Not yet, maybe sometime," she said.
The NAACP and Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty had joined Amnesty International in organizing support for Davis, setting up about 300 rallies, vigils and events worldwide in the past week or so. In addition, they said that more than 1 million people have signed a petition in support of Davis' bid to be exonerated.
In a 2008 statement, then-Chatham County District Attorney Spencer Lawton described how Davis was at a pool party in Savannah when he shot another man, Michael Cooper, wounding him in the face. Davis was then driven to a nearby convenience store, where he pistol-whipped a homeless man, Larry Young, who'd just bought a beer.
Soon thereafter, prosecutors said, MacPhail - who was working in uniform, off-duty, at a nearby bus station and restaurant - arrived. It was then, the jury determined, that Davis shot the officer three times, including once in the face as he stood over him.
Davis' lawyers, in a federal court filing, insisted that there is "no physical evidence linking" Davis to MacPhail's murder. They point, too, to "the unremarkable conclusion" of a ballistics expert who testified that he could not find definitively that the bullets that wounded Cooper and killed MacPhail were the same.
Georgia's attorney general, in an online statement, claimed that the expert said the bullets came from the same gun type and noted that casings at the pool party shooting matched - thus came from the same firearm as - those found at MacPhail's murder scene.
Two decades ago, a jury convicted Davis on two counts of aggravated assault and one each of possessing a firearm during a crime, obstructing a law enforcement officer and murder. The latter charge led, soon thereafter, to his death sentence.
While reviewing Davis' claims of innocence last year, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia found that Davis "vastly overstates the value of his evidence of innocence."
"Some of the evidence is not credible and would be disregarded by a reasonable juror," Judge William T. Moore wrote in a 172-page opinion. "Other evidence that Mr. Davis brought forward is too general to provide anything more than smoke and mirrors."
The parole board denied had denied Davis clemency once before. The board has never changed its mind on any case in the past 33 years.
Read more CNN coverage on the Troy Davis case
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Convicted in 1991. Should have been executed in 1991. This is what's wrong with the "justice" system.
so we could execute more innocent people like rick perry did? yup rick perry knowingly had an innocent man executed...true story.
Immediate execution isnt going to work, you have to have a cooldown time period to go over the facts so that the execution is justified beyond 100% of a doubt.
The only charge against him that he is denying is the one that qualifies him for the death penalty. What if the guy he shot in the face had died? Does it make a difference that he lived? HE SHOT SOMEONE IN THE FACE! So are we all to believe that his violent outing just came to an end after he beat the homeless guy and then "someone" else picked up where he left off? Even for those of you who believe he did not kill the cop, this man is far from innocent
Dick Cheney shot a man in the face....Im just sayin.
You said it all. It's all about the basics and keeping it simple. What did he do and when did he do it? He did enough to get the shot in the arm. Just because the person he shot in the face didn't die, does that make it OK that Troy did it to another person. The homeless man took a beat down was that OK? If any of this is true, well Troy you be the judge!
I've never admitted I've been wrong in 33 years also but it doesn't mean I'm right! A new trail should be allowed...if he is proven guilty then let the punishment stand.....but under the cloud of doubt he should have a new trail.
I am with everybody elses comments on this case. If there are doubts then he should get life in prison not execution. Besides by killing him is not gonna bring that person back. What if in the end he is found out to be innocent then that means the state killed a person who did not do it. The witnesses changed their stories because i think that they are being threatned.
I agree he shouldn't be executed if there is doubt, and their surely is... but he did shoot a man in the face at a pool party, and then pistol whipped a homeless person. If these events are true, then... I don't know. It's not like he was just innocently walking by and happened to be black, he was already raising hell and is lucky the man at the pool party wasn't killed.
Whoa, whoa. So he shoot another man in the face at a pool party, and then went to a convienience store where he pistol whipped a man with the same pistol, then casings found from that pistol were found where the cop was killed and at the pool party...
...yeah, he sounds innocent alright. Good luck on the other side, Troy.
Never trust a cop especially if you are in the rural south, Savannah qualifies, and black. Mostly don't trust cops.
No- You have a great time on the other side...of hell..because your without a doubt going there. Your moral character and lack of human compassion speaks leaps and bounds.....not to mention your clear ignorance. After this life – you will doubtingly burn Hitler....goodluck with that
I have to agree with bolaji09. IF he is guilty of the act without a shadow of a doubt then perhaps he deserves his fate but as long as there is a debate then it should be investigated. In the grand scheme of things however, (and my brother is a living testimony of this fact) when you associate with violence, drugs, alcohol in excess and in a very careless manner giving no regard to law and order or common human decency, if you did it or not, you were there. If you were drunk or not, you were there. The choices you make bring you to a point. Now if he stopped in for gas and they say he shot the officer its just too out there. But with the pool party shoot out, then the convenience store and then the officer. the trail is kinda hard to ignore. I wanna know where are the people that helped him escape from the pool party, then the convenience store and finally got him to the scene of the murder? why weren't they prosecuted???
Fact of the Day:
Most people under and above this post are going to Hell.
fact of the day: you're a fool
you too pal.....
'Hell' is a made-up concept. It was invented by Christian writers (Dante for example) and was adopted by the Church as the fear of the graphic descriptions were useful. Think Santa Claus only the reverse. Nothing like controlling little children (e.g.) with a Vision of HellFire and Santa Claus.
I love God. I love life. And I love truth. Most these people despise all of the above.
THE FACT STILL REMAINS WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IN IT OR NOT, YOU FOOLS WILL BURN FOR YOUR BOTTOMLESS HATRED!
Fact of the day:
You can't prove or disprove the existence of hell. Therefore you can't state that it is a fact that everyone who posted on this story is going to 'hell.'
According to your religion, only your 'god' can make the determination and judgement on who goes to 'hell' or not. So, why are you playing 'god'? Your god is angry with you now. Good job, fool.
what ever happened to INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY?? Seems to me this man been labled and automatically accused of murder! 20yrs gone by and still no EXACT PROOF of him ACTUALLY doing the crimes?? America has accused numerous people of murder without full proof n looks like its happening again...not sayin Davis IS fully innocent but until they can show he is a killer he not a killer! We as people need to take these situations way more seriously into solving them instead of killing a man because we THINK he done it. If thats the case why shouldnt everyone be on DEATH ROW for being invloved in letting all these murders happen to these people bad or not! Bet that won't happen. Therse no such thing as justice in this world today
Wow I am astonished by all the comments...this is why racism will never stop, because everyone who made the comments about him being black or people bring up if he was white they would of fried him already...really what does it really matter with the color of the skin, what matters is what the crime was. Then people bring in religion really what does religion have to do with any of this. People just need to learn to live there life and mind there own business because everyone that has made comments about how unfair or he needs to die will forgot about this guy in two weeks and life will move on. If he did the crime then he needs proper punishment because if any of you were in the family position right now. Every single one of you would be asking for the death penalty.
Wally makes sense, the rest of you are mentally ill.
GASP, this guy actually appears like he might REALLY be GUILTY. I am going to read up on this...I would hate to become like Nancy Grace. I am sorry I posted a sarcastic comment about southern justice before seeing all the possible facts.
blah, blah, blah to all you arm chair jurors. No of you really know, unless you were there that night. He may have, and he may not have. Any reasonable doubt is at least worth looking into before you plungers are hit. Be nice to know for sure.
How come the white guys on death row are always guilty, but the black guys on death row are just "victims of racial bias"? Where are the black celebrities coming to the rescue of the white death row inmates? I never see that happen. This is not justice, it's race politics.
Why is killing a cop worse than killing like 20 people? THERE ARE SERIAL KILLERS THAT DIDN'T GET THE DEATH PENALTY! All you who are cheering on his death are stating that the State is God, and anything underneath authority is worthless.
Is a wheat farmer a cereal killer?
HaHa Miss: Hey.... I was at the pancake restaurant. I heard gunfire. IRAN. I got shot in the leg. Now... IHOP.
They should not execute a man with such enormous doubt looming. This officer's mother is taking out rage against anyone they had in custody. I feel for her pain but she too should not be quick to pull the trigger. This death will be on this woman's conscience forever even if she feels someone died for nothing. Her son was an officer to uphold the law and now there is no law left! The justice system is broken and innocent people are dying because of it.