Associated Press
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s foreign policy chief is calling on the U.S. state of Georgia to lift the death sentence of Troy Davis.
Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. The U.S. Supreme Court in March rejected Davis’ appeal of his sentence.
In a statement Thursday, Catherine Ashton said that “serious and compelling doubts regarding his culpability continue to persist” and warned that he “may now be at risk of imminent execution.”
She added that the “EU therefore calls for a commutation of his death sentence.”
The EU has long been opposed to capital punishment and has previously intervened on Davis’ behalf.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press