After a hear­ing on September 19, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemen­cy to Troy Davis who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion on September 21, despite pre­sen­ta­tion of tes­ti­mo­ny cast­ing doubt on his guilt. Brian Kammer, one of Davis’s attor­neys, said, ​“I am utter­ly shocked and dis­ap­point­ed at the fail­ure of our jus­tice sys­tem at all lev­els to cor­rect a mis­car­riage of jus­tice.” Davis’s claims of inno­cence have received inter­na­tion­al atten­tion, and calls for clemen­cy have been made by Pope Benedict XVI, for­mer President Jimmy Carter, for­mer FBI Director William Sessions, for­mer Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and oth­ers. Doubts about Davis’s guilt were raised when some pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es changed their sto­ries after giv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny against Davis, includ­ing accu­sa­tions point­ing to anoth­er sus­pect as the mur­der­er of a police offi­cer in Savannah. The Board heard tes­ti­mo­ny from a juror in Davis’s orig­i­nal tri­al who now says she has too much doubt about his guilt and would change her ver­dict. They also heard from a wit­ness who orig­i­nal­ly tes­ti­fied against Davis, but has since recant­ed her tes­ti­mo­ny, and from Davis’s fam­i­ly. The Board had held two pre­vi­ous clemen­cy hear­ings for Davis, but the make­up of the Board had changed since he was denied clemen­cy in 2008, and new tes­ti­mo­ny had been giv­en at a fed­er­al court hear­ing in 2010. UPDATE: Davis was exe­cut­ed late on the night of Sept. 21. The U.S. Supreme Court delayed the exe­cu­tion to con­sid­er final appeals, but then denied as stay.

In a press release, Larry Cox, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Amnesty International AIUSA, said, ​“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. In 2007 the Board vowed that no exe­cu­tion would go for­ward unless there was ​‘no doubt’ about guilt, a vow that has now been ren­dered mean­ing­less. To fail to re-exam­ine the facts, includ­ing alle­ga­tions about an alter­nate sus­pect, and allow this exe­cu­tion to go for­ward is an injus­tice to both the Davises and the MacPhails. Amnesty International urges the Board to recon­sid­er its deci­sion imme­di­ate­ly, and for District Attorney Larry Chisolm to seek to vacate the death war­rant. Should Troy Davis be exe­cut­ed, Georgia may well have exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man and in so doing dis­cred­it­ed the justice system.”

The vic­tim’s moth­er, Anne MacPhail, expressed sat­is­fac­tion with the out­come of the hear­ing. ​“I am very con­vinced that he is guilty,” she said to CNN.

(B. Rankin, ​“Parole board denies clemen­cy for Troy Davis,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 20, 2011; Press Release, Amnesty International, Sept. 20, 2011). See also Clemency and Innocence.

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