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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It is good to know that if you kill some one in the state of Georgia you have a chance of dying too. FRY HIM ALLREADY!
And what do you know about this case ? You are just a monster.
Yeah I wish you could take his place troll.
this shows how much you know and how ignorant you are to the case at hand
You are a complete idiot! This is a human being that MAY be innoncent you are talking about. It just goes to show that people out there really have no compassion for HUMAN life!
Take your bloodlust and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. You're probably one of those idiots that cheered Gov. Perry in Texas when all of the executions in Texas was a topic in the presidential debate.
Those of us who have been seeking to have Mr. Davis' execution stopped are not seeking to have him freed. Well, at least most of us aren't. It has been my belief that he should have received life in prison for his other acts. The idea that a person who is innocent of one crime could be killed for that crime is not justice. If there is reasonable doubt, the man shouldn't be put to death. Most of the witnesses have since recanted their stories, so the case isn't nearly as strong. There are very limited cases that I'm for the death penalty, and this isn't one of them.
if the victim wasnt a cop he would of been spared!
That's right, usually killing an officer of the law or federal official does automatically carry the death penalty. These officers go to work every day and have to deal with the lowest of the low in this country, the least we can do is make the penalty for killing one death.
Hopefully Law enforcement is anticipating riots....should not be a surprise given the exposure of this case.
Very sad and it is a testament that Georgia is still in the 60' with their justice system...backwards. They have not changed since I lived there 7 years ago. If there is doubt then it's doubt.
Can we just let the south secede and allow their racist, overweight, illiterate society to fend for themselves? As a northeast liberal, I'm tired of paying for their stop signs, or in this case, a bankrupt legal system.
What a shame that you don't practice what you preach. I'm from the south and I disagree with this horrible injustice. Perhaps you should not paint all of us with the same brush. It just so happens that some of us have graduate degrees, enjoy healthy food, and (a real shocker for you I'm sure), go to the gym and maintain a healthy weight. We also travel , read books and actively participate in the political process. Strangely, I've visited many cities in the US and traveled abroad where ignorance, racism, poverty and injustice also exist. I wonder who you choose to blame for those facts.
Troy Davs is more than guilty! It is a shame that it has taken this long for a GUILTY convict to be put to death! I live in Savannah and this man has made a complete mockery of our judicial system! EVERY court from the highest to lowest has up held this verdict! Troy Davis stood over a police officer and shot him in his head! This is an animal, not a human with compassion!
No Mr. is not an animal. He is an innocent man who is going to be murdered.
Another idiot with bloodlust in his heart....bet you call yourself "christian" too, don't you?
Have you read the ORIGINAL court files? I doubt it! Troy Davis is GUILTY!
Christian has nothing to do with this. I bet most of you that want Troy Davis to walk believe and support abortion? So it's okay to kill a baby because the mother made a mistake, but Troy Davis can kill a police officer and he needs to walk?
1. The gunpowder residue tests were NEGATIVE.
2. There was no weapon found.
3. Redd Coles was the one who fought with the homeless man and has confessed to several people that he killed Officer McPhail. He is also one of 2 (out of 9) who did not recant. He had a .38, same type of gun involved, that disappeared.
CNN and other news agencies are doing only a superficial job in reporting. 7/9 witnesses recant. What about the other evidence presented at the trial such as was there gun powder residue on Troy? Was the gun found in his pocession? Was it registered to him? Who else was involved with the beating of the homeless man? etc. I'm sure the Courts are reviewing all of this info. rather than just paying attention to witnesses some of whom maybe recanting their testimony because of pressure brought against them by Troy supporters. I would like to hear what other evidence is available before saying there is reasonable doubt.
And this is precisely the point – take another good look at all of the evidence to make sure. Staying his execution would not prevent it – just provide a final review. Those who believe that the conclusions reached by jurors who have no professional training or expertise in evaluating evidence are always right need to spend some time reviewing cases where evidence was a) planted, b) lacking, or c) misrepresented for political or other reasons.
I don't know one way or the other about Troy Davis. But having a credible judicial system requires that we get it right before we take someone's life. Otherwise, we are no better than China.
1. The gunpowder residue tests were NEGATIVE.
2. There was no weapon found.
3. Redd Coles was the one who fought with the homeless man and has confessed to several people that he killed Officer McPhail. He is also one of 2 (out of 9) who did not recant. He had a .38, same type of gun involved, that disappeared.
America has more people in prison than any other country in the world. That includes Mexico, Iraq, North Korea, or any of these other supposed "hell holes of the world". Your freedom is a lie.
We have people in prison because they have (in most cases) violated the rules of our society. We also have a bigger population than the countries you listed and do not live under their tyrannical regimes. If want to question our freedoms, get your facts straight and take the time to educate yourself first.
people need to turn to god we all are living in serious time some of you bloggers are heartless and selfish
My heart goes out to both families but GA, GOD is watching & there is life after death!!! NAACP, YOU & ME, I AM TROY DAVIS!!!
Not enough evidence to set him free, but there is too much doubt to proceed with the execution. Georgia got this one wrong. When you execute a person, there must be NO REASONABLE DOUBT, which there was and it was overlooked. This is exactly what is wrong with the justice system. I am not sure whether or not he is guilty or not, but I do see a reasonable doubt, and killing an innocent man is about as big of a travesty as that cop getting killed.
life is a mystery
Guess the witnesses who lied are going to live with the guilt for a long time, maybe they should have thought about that before they lied on the stand. Why aren't they being investigated for taking this guy's life if he is indeed innocent? That's the real question.
Also enough liberal/repub nonsense. I know quite a few moderate liberals who are 100% for the death penalty, and I'm one of them.
fry his a$$
And what if he's innocent–that they have the wrong man?
xoxo, he is black, how can they have the wrong man?
Wow, is that the only reason you think he's guilty because he's black?