On June 23 – 24, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore heard new tes­ti­mo­ny in the case of death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis, who was giv­en an unusu­al chance by the U.S. Supreme Court to ​“clear­ly estab­lish” his inno­cence after almost 20 years. Davis was con­vict­ed in 1991 of the shoot­ing of a Savannah police offi­cer based on eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny that iden­ti­fied him as the shoot­er. During the recent hear­ings in fed­er­al court, four wit­ness­es recant­ed their orig­i­nal tes­ti­mo­ny, say­ing that they were threat­ened or coerced into giv­ing false state­ments. Davis’s attor­ney, Jason Ewart, expressed con­fi­dence in the tes­ti­mo­ny of Benjamin Gordon, who stat­ed for the first time that he wit­nessed Sylvester ​“Redd” Coles com­mit the mur­der of the offi­cer. Coles was one of the few remain­ing orig­i­nal wit­ness­es who have not recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny against Davis. Neither side called Coles to the stand. Judge Moore did not issue a rul­ing at the close of the hear­ings, but instruct­ed attor­neys to file legal briefs by July 7. Moore said he would rule as prompt­ly as possible.

(B. Rankin, ​“Judge must decide whether Troy Davis proved inno­cence in cop killing,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, June 25, 2010). See Innocence.

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