Will Georgia execute an innocent man?

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear an appeal from Troy Davis, who has spent two decades on Georgia's death row for a murder he says he didn't commit. The justices' refusal to hear the case means that Georgia can now set a new execution date. Davis has come within hours of execution twice in the last year. Nine non-police eyewitnesses testified at Davis' trial that they saw him shoot a police officer in a Savannah Burger King parking lot on August 19, 1989. Seven of those eyewitnesses have recanted, saying their statements were coerced by police.

Photo: Scott Langley

Davis' legal team is scrambling for options today, but courts have every turn have denied Davis a new trial, or even a hearing. From the Atlanta-Journal Constitution:

Davis’ mother, Virginia Davis, 63, said police charged the wrong man.

“The real killer is walking around Savannah, bragging about what he’s done,” she said. “If they kill Troy, they have God to answer to. They don’t have the Davis family to answer to.”

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International, which has supported Davis’ appeals, condemned the high decision.

“It is disgraceful that the highest court in the land could sink so low when doubts surrounding Davis’ guilt are so high,” Cox said. “Faulty eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions and the hallmark of Davis’ case.”

Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta said the case was riddled with errors.

“The trial of this case has all the integrity of a professional wrestling match,” he said. “It was deeply flawed, yet there’s no way to correct it.”

Since Davis’ trial, seven key witnesses recanted their testimony. Others also have come forward implicating another man who was with Davis at the scene.

(Full disclosure: I work at the Innocence Project, which participated in a friend of the court brief in the Davis case.)