On March 17, the Georgia Supreme Court vot­ed 4 – 3 against Troy Davis’ request for a new tri­al. Davis, who is on death row for the 1989 mur­der of a police offi­cer, claims he is inno­cent and that he was a vic­tim of mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty. Since his tri­al in 1991, sev­en of the wit­ness­es called by the pros­e­cu­tion have recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny. Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the dis­sent­ing opin­ion that Davis should at least have a hear­ing because, ​“In this case, near­ly every wit­ness who iden­ti­fied Davis as the shoot­er at tri­al has now dis­claimed his or her abil­i­ty to do so reli­ably.” If the pre­sid­ing judge deter­mined the new evi­dence to be cred­i­ble, it ​“would show the prob­a­bil­i­ty that a new jury would find rea­son­able doubt of Davis’ guilt or at least suf­fi­cient resid­ual doubt to decline to impose the death penal­ty,” accord­ing to Justice Sears. 

Last year, Davis received a stay less than 24 hours before he was to be exe­cut­ed in order for the Court to review his claim of inno­cence. Davis will like­ly turn to Georgia’s Board of Pardon and Paroles to request clemency.

(“Condemned cop killer denied new tri­al,” by Bill Rankin and Sonji Jacobs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 17, 2008). See Innocence.

Citation Guide