Related article:
Ga. cop killer scheduled for execution
By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Typically when a condemned killer is strapped to the gurney on Georgia’s death row and prepared for lethal injection, any doubt about his guilt has long since faded.
But that is not the case with Troy Anthony Davis, his lawyers say.
Today, for the second time, Davis’ attorneys will ask the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his death sentence. Last summer, hours before Davis’ scheduled execution, the board granted Davis a temporary reprieve.
This time, Davis’ attorneys again will argue there is substantial doubt as to whether their client committed the Aug. 19, 1989, slaying of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.
Chatham County prosecutors, investigators and members of MacPhail’s family also will appear before the five-member board. They will insist the scheduled Sept. 23 execution of Davis, 39, will be nothing more than justice for an unrepentant cop killer.
Since Davis’ 1991 trial, seven key witnesses have recanted their testimony. Witness testimony formed the core of the prosecution’s case because physical evidence was scant: no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no DNA.
A few hundred people, many chanting “I am Troy Davis,” and “Innocence matters” attended a rally Thursday evening at the Capitol sponsored by Amnesty International and the NAACP.
They got to hear from Davis himself from death row as his sister, Martina Correia, held a cellphone up to the microphone.
“I am an innocent man,” Davis said over the speaker phone to the raucous crowd. “Until I’m free, justice is not done.”
Davis’ claims of innocence have attracted international attention, including a request from Pope Benedict XVI that Davis be resentenced to life without parole. Courts have repeatedly rejected Davis’ efforts to win a new trial or, at least, a court hearing in which the recanted testimony can be presented and cross-examined.
Atlanta lawyer Henry Walker, chairman of the State Bar of Georgia’s indigent defense committee, said MacPhail’s murder was the type of killing in which the death penalty should be considered. But he said Davis should be allowed to present his new evidence, granted a new trial or resentenced to life without parole.
“It is important to the public’s confidence in Georgia’s criminal justice system that no person’s life is taken by the state except in circumstances where their constitutional rights to a fair trial have been fully respected,” he said. “With so many witnesses recanting their testimony, there just seems to be too many doubts to move forward with this execution.”
Davis was within 24 hours of being put to death when the parole board temporarily stayed his execution on July 16, 2007. The board issued its decision after a 10-hour hearing in which it heard from a number of witnesses, including four who recanted their trial testimony.
The board said in a statement it “will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused.”
Today, Davis’ lawyers are expected to present more testimony to the parole board.
The board does not like to second-guess a jury’s verdict and is rarely ever presented with claims of innocence in a death-penalty case, said Jack Martin, an Atlanta criminal defense lawyer.
“Most often, the parole board will be presented with information that the inmate has been rehabilitated, is a peacemaker in jail, has a serious mental illness, has shown good character, is remorseful, or even that the victim’s family, for whatever reason, no longer wants the execution,” Martin said. “But the Troy Davis case is different because so much has been learned since the trial about things the jury never heard.”
David Lock, Chatham County’s chief assistant district attorney, said his office has no doubts that Davis killed MacPhail.
“I think we’ve already shot them down,” Lock said of the witnesses who recanted their trial testimony. “We’re there to answer questions, reintegrate evidence or information that’s been provided to the parole board.”
Members of MacPhail’s family did not return phone calls seeking comment.
In March, after the state Supreme Court rejected Davis’ last appeal in a 4-3 ruling, the slain officer’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, expressed frustration that Davis has sat on death row so long.
“There is no new evidence,” she said. “No mother should go through what I have been through.”
Jason Ewart, one of Davis’ lawyers, said he is hopeful the parole board will halt Davis’ execution.
“There’s already some doubt,” he said. “We think the evidence will show at least reasonable doubt here, and we’re confident the board will find that he’s innocent.”
MacPhail, a 27-year-old husband and father of two, appeared in a Savannah Burger King parking lot late at night after hearing the wails of a man being pistol-whipped. Before he could draw his gun, MacPhail was shot by a man who then stood over the fallen officer and fired again and again.
Two years later, Davis went to trial and was sentenced to death. But as he aged on death row, seven witnesses changed their stories.
Two key witnesses, though, have not changed their testimony. One, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, was at the scene and later told police Davis was the shooter.
But new witnesses, found by Davis’ lawyers, now say Coles confessed to them that he killed MacPhail. Other witnesses say Coles had a gun immediately after the shooting --- contrary to what Coles testified at trial.
In a prior interview, Coles declined to discuss the case.
The second witness, Stephen Sanders, was at the scene with his Air Force colleagues at the time of the shooting. Sanders initially told police he could not identify the gunman, but at trial, he testified he saw Davis fire the fatal shots.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta-Journal Constitution