UPDATE: After less than one hour of deliberation, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Troy Anthony Davis a 90-day stay of execution. The stay means Davis’ execution will be on hold while the board weighs the evidence presented as part of his request for clemency. (Associated Press, July 16, 2007).

Today (July 16), on the eve of Georgia’s scheduled execution of Troy Anthony Davis (pictured), the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles will consider whether Davis should be granted clemency because of new evidence about his possible innocence. More than two decades ago, Davis was convicted of killing an off-duty police officer in Savannah. With no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime, prosecutors relied on the testimony of nine eyewitnesses to build their case against Davis. Since then, seven of the state’s key eyewitnesses have recanted or changed their testimony, with some saying that their original statements were given only after police harassed them and pressured them to lie under oath. Some of the eyewitness say another man who testified against Davis during his trial, Sylvester Coles, is actually guilty of the crime.

Antonie Williams, one of the seven eyewitnesses calling for clemency in Davis’ case, had identified Davis as the shooter during his original trial, but now states, “Even when I said that, I was totally unsure whether he was the person who shot the officer. I felt pressured to point at him because he was the one who was sitting in the courtroom.” Despite Williams’ admission and similar statements filed by other eyewitnesses in the case, courts have not held evidentiary hearings to consider Davis’ innocence claim.

Concerns about the impact of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act governing federal review and growing uncertainties about Davis’ guilt led retired FBI Director William Sessions to write an op-ed about the case for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In the piece, Sessions noted, “It would be intolerable to execute an innocent man. It would be equally intolerable to execute a man without his claims of innocence ever being considered by the courts or by the executive.” U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia shares Sessions’ concerns about AEDPA and plans to testify on Davis’ behalf during today’s clemency hearing.
(New York Times, July 15, 2007). See Clemency, Innocence, and Upcoming Executions.