Troy Davis

For the Canadian Football League running back, see Troy Davis.

The Troy Davis case involves Troy Anthony Davis, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a Savannah, Georgia police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, partly on the basis of eyewitness testimony, and partly on forensic evidence. Officer Mark MacPhail, twenty-seven years old, a former Army Ranger and father of two young children, died without ever having drawn his weapon.

Seven of nine trial witnesses later recanted or otherwise contradicted their trial testimony, in part or in whole, but Davis' various habeas actions and his extraordinary motion for a new trial were denied. During Davis' trial, every one of the now-recanting witnesses had been pressed forcefully by defense counsel to get them to qualify or retract their testimony. All refused. Amnesty International, Pope Benedict XVI and others have appealed against his sentence, contributing twice to the sentence being stayed temporarily, but in the end no court that has looked over the affidavits has overturned Davis' guilty verdict. In October 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Davis' last appeal. Davis' execution date had been set for October 27, 2008, but was stayed on October 24 by a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The trial

On August 23, 1989, Troy Anthony Davis surrendered to the authorities after having changed clothes and fled from Savannah for Atlanta on the night of McPhail's murder in the company of his sister. Blood-spattered clothes were recovered from Davis' house after his arrest, but at the time DNA testing was not available. When questioned about the murder of MacPhail, Davis admitted he was at the scene at the time, but stated another man named Coles had done the actual shooting. The murder weapon was never found. Physical evidence that linked the shooting to Davis was a bullet and bullet casing tied to another shooting done by Davis earlier on the same night as McPhail was shot. Nevertheless, Davis asserted his innocence and a jury trial was held. His conviction occurred in August 1991.

According to the trial transcripts this is what the jury accepted as having happened on the night of the murder:

Troy Anthony Davis, Sylvester Coles, and Darrell Collins attempted to rob a homeless man, Larry Young, in the early hours of August 19, 1989. Young had purchased several cans of beer at a convenience store, and as he exited, the three demanded his beer. Young refused. The trio split apart and surrounded Young, and then began beating him, Davis using a pistol to strike Young on the head.

Mark Allen MacPhail, a 27-year-old Savannah, Georgia police officer, was working off-duty but in full uniform as a security guard at a nearby Burger King restaurant. He was shot while attempting to intervene in the robbery in the restaurant's parking lot. MacPhail ran past Coles to stop Davis, who was striking Young with a .38 pistol. Davis ran off. When MacPhail called out for him to stop, Davis shot him from a distance of 5-6 feet, with the bullet entering under MacPhail's bullet-proof vest, causing fatal internal injuries. While MacPhail was on the ground, Davis closed in and shot him in the face. One eyewitness testified that Davis was smiling at the time he shot MacPhail.

Earlier on the same night, a man named Michael Cooper was shot by Davis at a party in the nearby neighborhood of Cloverdale. It was shown in court by forensic evidence that the same gun that wounded Cooper was used to kill MacPhail. The bullet casings from the two shootings were matched and shown to be fired by the same gun. Davis was present at the party where Cooper was shot, but Coles was not.

Racial composition of jury

The jury in the trial was composed of seven blacks and five whites. Although Davis raised racial bias in the jury selection process as an issue, the eight potential black jurors who were peremptorily challenged were removed from the jury pool for unambiguously non-racist reasons, specifically: for making explicit statements during voir dire (jury selection) that they would not consider applying the death penalty (five of eight), for implicitly or explicitly indicating a personal connection to Davis (two of eight), and for having had recent multiple contacts with law enforcement due to family troubles (one of eight). The county in which the trial was held was about two-thirds white, and the jury pool was about 57% white, so the seated jury, at 58% black, actually reflected a more favorable racial makeup to Davis than would be expected on average. For these two reasons, Davis' challenge of racial bias in jury selection was dismissed.

Appeals

After seven of nine eyewitnesses either partially or entirely recanted or contradicted testimony they had previously given, restrictions on Davis's right to appeal his conviction for a second time, due in part to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, brought his plight to international attention. His first appeal, in 1991, had confirmed his conviction as had his state and federal habeas actions. Prosecutors argued successfully that under Georgia law that it was too late to present the recantations as evidence in an extraordinary motion for new trial. Under most state's laws, motions for new trial based on recantations by trial witnesses are almost never granted if all they do is impeach the testimony given by the witness at trial. The Troy Davis case is not unusual in that aspect.

Harriet Murray, a witness who recanted in 2002, refused to wait for a notary to witness her signed statement, making it legally inadmissible in court. Nothing, of course, prevented her from signing another statement in front of a notary any time in the subsequent six years. Two brothers, Gary and Anthony Hargrove, came forward over a year after the trial, with Gary Hargrove claiming to have been told at a party by Sylvester Coles (the other possible triggerman) that Coles was the murderer, and Anthony Hargrove claiming to have witnessed Coles doing the actual shooting; Anthony Hargrove further claimed that he failed to come forward during the investigation because he was violating parole on the evening of the shooting. While numerous state and federal courts have considered the Hargroves' affidavits in several direct appeals and habeas actions, none have been willing to order a retrial of the case based on the affidavits' contents. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for an appeal of the denial of habeas relief in June 2007.

The first time any of the recantation affidavits were presented was in a 1994 state habeas action. That means they were reviewed by one judge and then by the seven Georgia Supreme Court justices on appeal from a denial of habeas relief. Then they were reviewed in a federal habeas action by one judge and then by three Eleventh Circuit judges on appeal. Then they were reviewed in cert petition form by nine U.S. Supreme Court justices. Then they were reviewed by the trial judge during the extraordinary motion for new trial action and then by the seven justices of the Georgia Supreme Court as that was action was being appealed. Therefore, the affidavits, in various combinations, had already been reviewed by 29 judges in seven different types of review, over the course of 17 years, before they got to the US Supreme Court in the fall of 2008.

Davis's execution was initially scheduled for July 17, 2007. On July 16, U.S. Congressman John Lewis spoke to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Davis's behalf, suggesting that one of the two witnesses who had not recanted (i.e., Coles) was the real killer. Four thousand letters were received by the board written on his behalf, including letters written by Desmond Tutu, Harry Belafonte, composer and human rights activist William Rowland and former FBI director William Sessions. Sister Helen Prejean, Amnesty International US director Larry Cox, and the Council of Europe all spoke out against the planned execution. The Vatican's nuncio to the U.S., Monsignor Martin Krebs, sent a letter on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI to Governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue urging him to spare Davis's life. However, Georgia is one of three U.S. states where the governor has no power to grant clemency, the matter being left to an appointed board.

On July 16, a ninety day stay of execution was granted by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Davis expressed gratitude for the stay. By considering all testimony and evidence submitted by Davis and his attorneys during hearings held during the stay of execution, including testimony from Davis himself, and after having physical evidence in the case retested on their behalf, the Georgia Parole and Pardons Board held what amounted to an entire second trial of Davis. In the end, they found that the original sentence was justified and denied clemency.

On August 3, 2007, the Georgia Supreme Court voted four to three to hear a discretionary appeal of Davis's 1991 conviction. On March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court denied the appeal listing in detail why the recantation affidavits were legally invalid or otherwise unpersuasive as to Davis' innocence. The Georgia Supreme Court even noted that one of Davis' own affidavits can be read so as to point to his own guilt in McPhail's murder.

In September 2008, Jimmy Carter, through the Carter Center, released a letter urging the state Board of Pardons and Parole to reverse its decision to deny clemency; the letter said that flaws in Davis's conviction and appeals warrant a closer look, writing in part:

"This case illustrates the deep flaws in the application of the death penalty in this country. Executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice."

Also in September 2008, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr wrote the board saying that he is "a strong believer in the death penalty as an appropriate and just punishment," but that the proper level of fairness and accuracy required for the ultimate punishment has not been met in Davis's case.

Subsequently, Reverend Al Sharpton also called for clemency after he met and prayed with Davis on death row.

On September 11, 2008, hundreds of people turned out for a rally in support of Davis at the state capitol in Atlanta; the following day, the Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles nonetheless denied clemency for Davis.

On September 22, 2008, Attorney Carol Gray, who assisted the Troy Davis defense team, suggested that the execution be stayed until information can be obtained from a clerk at the motel across from the murder scene. Gray says that the clerk was heard screaming after shots were fired, but the clerk has so far not been identified or interviewed. According to Gray, such identification could be made through existing tax records.

A new execution date was set for 7 p.m. on September 23, 2008 . State authorities intended to carry out the execution despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court was scheduled to take up the case the following week. However, on September 23, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court called an emergency session, during a period of what was otherwise recess, and issued a stay of execution.

On Tuesday, October 14, 2008 the US Supreme Court declined to intervene in this appeal from Troy Davis. They gave no explanation for the decision. The execution had been rescheduled for October 27.

On Friday, October 24, 2008 the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 25-day stay of execution.

Troy Anthony Davis

Troy Anthony Davis was born on October 9, 1968 (1968-10-09) (age 40). Davis was a coach in the Savannah Police Athletic League and had signed up for service in the United States Marine Corps. Davis had a prior concealed weapon and a misdemeanor assault arrest predating his alleged shooting of Officer McPhail and Michael Cooper. His nickname at the time of his arrest was RAH -- which stood for "Rough as Hell".

External links

Defending Troy Davis

• Troy Anthony Davis: An Innocent Man on Georgia's Death Row
• Finality over Fairness: The Case of Troy Davis (Amnesty International)
• Bob Herbert of The New York Times on the Davis case, September 20, 2008

Condemning Troy Davis

• Justice for Mark Allen MacPhail
• Mark McPhail Information, Support and Statements

Legal facts

• New Execution Date Set For Troy Anthony Davis (Contains detailed description of the incidents that led to the conviction, as well as full legal history of the case until August 14, 2008)