Troy Davis, facing execution, seeks polygraph

Troy Anthony Davis enters Chatham County Superior Court Aug. 22, 1991, in Savannah, Ga., during his trial in the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. / AP

ATLANTA - A condemned Georgia inmate who has drawn supporters from an ex-president to the pope is set to be executed Wednesday after he lost what had been his most realistic chance at avoiding lethal injection.

Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit after Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures. They asked prisons officials to let him take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention.

CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen described the denial of clemency as "routine."

"Parole boards almost never grant clemency, so this is not a surprise," Cohen said. "Now if Wednesday's execution is going to be halted it's going to have to come from the federal courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court in particular, which last week halted a Texas execution."

Davis has gotten support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year. State and federal courts, however, repeatedly upheld his conviction for the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard in Savannah when he was shot dead rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked.

Davis' attorneys say he was convicted based on flawed testimony that has been largely recanted by witnesses, but prosecutors and MacPhail's relatives say they have no doubt the right man is being punished. (At left, watch a "CBS Evening News" report on efforts to exonerate Davis)

"Justice was finally served for my father," said Mark MacPhail Jr., who was an infant when his father was gunned down. "The truth was finally heard."

As Davis' attorneys considered filing another appeal, his supporters planned vigils and rallies around the world. Nearly 1 million people signed a petition seeking clemency, according to Amnesty International.

"We've been praying about it and with God on our side anything can happen," DeJaun Correia-Davis, the condemned man's 17-year-old nephew, told a rally of hundreds in front of the Georgia Capitol late Tuesday. "Let this be a case that not only highlights the death penalty but will hopefully be a big part in bringing it to an end."

Later Tuesday, Davis attorney Stephen Marsh told The Associated Press they had asked state prison officials and the pardons board to allow Davis to take a polygraph test.

Marsh hopes the pardons board will agree to consider results of the test. The machines aren't reliable measures of guilt but they "may tell you something about innocence," he said.

A prisons spokeswoman said she was unaware of the request and the pardons board didn't immediately respond.

Georgia initially planned to execute Davis in July 2007, but the pardons board granted him a stay less than 24 hours before he was to die. The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in a year later and halted the lethal injection just two hours before he was to be executed. And a federal appeals court halted another planned execution a few months later.

This time, state officials are confident this lethal injection will be carried out. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency. Davis supporters are calling on Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm to block the execution. But the prosecutor said in a statement Tuesday he's powerless to withdraw an execution order for Davis issued by a state Superior Court judge.

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[clsgis2]

Zero physical evidence. Seven of nine eyewitnesses recant. Lynchings continue in Georgia. We just call it capital punishment.

[Mustgofishin]

If he was innocent in the 1st place he would of asked for the "Lie detector" test 20 years ago. A lie detector test only measures bodily responses. It's the questions they are asked and how these questions are stated that allows the person giving the test to decide if the person is "Telling the Truth" or "Lying". That's why Lie detector tests are not admissible as evidence. But use of lie detector tests have vindicated many suspects during the police investigation.

[jesse2159]

After reading the ENTIRE case evidence,.....I too concluded HE'S GUILTY.

The witnesses DIDN'T recant their testimony. They said they didn't read the typed police statements but adopted the statements in open court,...there was NO police interference or coercion. The lies were rejected over and over. He did it and should grow a pair and die after admitting he did it and stop the innocence nonsense.

[dkjack]

For 30 years the case has been tried, reviewed and dissected on state and federal levels, looking at the same evidence you are trying to create doubt with now. You geniuses set yourselves up as experts, then malign the state of Georgia, based on your cheap, store-bought wisdom. If this man is in fact innocent, then he was struck by lightening, and it's a tragedy, BUT NOT AN INJUSTICE.

Troy Davis has lived over 30 years longer than the man he killed. THERE'S the injustice!

You are being played by the media, who are trying to create a soap opera and page clicks with cuddly pictures, and the defense's propaganda and a bunch of publicity-seeking demagogues. You are pathetic.

[dkjack]

20 years, not 30. Still, 20 years too long.

[observeur]

Kill an innocent will serve revenge not justice.

[dkjack]

More stupid sanctimony. "Kill an innocent" has nothing to do with revenge or justice. In fact, "kill an innocent" is what Troy Davis did, though you and your ilk think you're wiser and more intelligent than all the appeals courts and the Pardons and Paroles board.

Since you don't seem to know what it is, justice is about getting what you deserve. Murderers deserve to die.

[askagain]

After all of these years on death row, they now want a polygraph test. Obviously, this guy's defense lawyers are looking for any excuse to delay execution that they can find. This is why punishment isn't swift and can drag on for years and years.

[hillarynow]

This is what happens when boys play with guns. Grow up, put down the guns and spread the peace, life is short enough.

[robrod53]

He was there commiting a crime....someone got killed, wether he pull the trigger (most likely) or not, he is still guilty of murder...FRY HIM! Or give him drugs what ever get rid of THUGS

[dkjack]

Good point. Even if he didn't pull the trigger he's guilty of felony murder. The sanctimonious sob sisters here make me sick.

[Hballs1]

Myth #3
The verdict was an example of the racist court system in Chatham County Georgia.

Truth #3
The jury that found Davis guilty was majority/minority.

Myth #4
Most convicted criminals on Georgia's Death Row as of January 2008 were minorities.

Truth #4
The majority of those convicted persons on Georgia's Death Row are white males. The lone female on Georgia's Death Row is white.

Myth #5
The support Davis is receiving from celebrities and human rights groups must mean there is doubt about his innocence.

Truth #5
The celebrities and human rights groups that are asking for clemency for Davis are doing so because they oppose the death penalty NOT because he is innocent. He IS GULITY!

[Hballs1]

Myth #2
There was never any physical evidence tying Davis to the murder for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.

Truth #2
A bullet that was removed from the jaw of a man who was shot by Troy Davis earlier in the day was compared to a bullet removed from Officer MacPhail. The ballistics matched!

During the latest Pardons and Parole Board hearing a Georgia Bureau of Investigation ballistics expert was present to testify about this evidence.

Bloody "spotted" clothing was removed from Davis' house after he was named as a suspect. Because of the way Troy was standing above Officer MacPhail when he executed the officer he would have received a faint splatter of blood (because Officer MacPhail was on the ground most of the splatter would have been dispersed out along the ground and not upward).

A DNA test was performed on this evidence several years after the shooting because this technology did not exist at the time of the murder. The blood was so degraded (due to time) and the spots so small that the test "consumed" the sample without results. The Prosecutors NOT Troy Davis asked for this test.