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Troy Davis, a Georgia death row prisoner who has been wrongfully incarcerated and facing execution for nearly 20 years, is in grave danger.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court ruling that denied Troy a new trial. U.S. District Judge William Moore oversaw a court hearing where Troy's lawyers presented compelling and convincing evidence of his innocence. Moore admitted that the case against Troy wasn't "ironclad," but he nevertheless rejected the plea for a new trial.
Thus, Troy has still never been able to present evidence of his innocence to a jury. There was never any physical evidence--no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no DNA--that pointed to Troy as the person who shot and killed Officer Mark MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah, Ga., in 1989. The case against Troy came down to nine witnesses presented by prosecutors at Troy's trial--and seven of them have since recanted their original testimony, with most saying they had been coerced by the police to implicate Troy.
Little now stands in the way of Georgia setting an execution date, which would be Troy's fourth. Executions were on hold in Georgia while state officials tried to figure out which drugs should be used in lethal injection executions. But a new "killing drug regime" has been decided on, and executions are likely to start up again.
Troy answered questions by mail from of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, in this interview for the New Abolitionist newsletter.
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