High Court denies stay of execution for Troy Davis

A Georgia State Patrol trooper watches over demonstrators calling for Georgia state officials to halt the scheduled execution of convicted cop killer Troy Davis at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Georgia, on Wednesday, September 21, 2011. / ERIK S. LESSER/AFP/Getty Images

Updated 11:00 p.m. ET

JACKSON, Georgia - The Supreme Court late Wednesday rejected an 11th-hour request to block the execution of Troy Davis, who convinced hundreds of thousands of people but not the justice system of his innocence in the murder of an off-duty police officer.

The court did not comment on its order late Wednesday, four hours after receiving the request. CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford reports there were no dissenting opinions on the court in denying Davis' request. Davis' execution had been set to begin at 7 p.m., but the high court's decision was not issued until after 10 p.m.

Davis' execution is expected to begin shortly.

"It is killing me, to tell you the truth. I don't know what to expect anymore," said Anneliese MacPhail, mother of Mark MacPhail, the man Davis was convicted of killing in 1989.

Though Davis' attorneys say seven of nine key witnesses against him have disputed all or parts of their testimony, state and federal judges have repeatedly ruled against granting him a new trial. As the court losses piled up Wednesday, his offer to take a polygraph test was rejected and the pardons board refused to give him one more hearing.

U.S. executions, by the numbers
Polygraph for Troy Davis blocked, attorney says
Troy Davis' lawyers filing execution-day appeal
Troy Davis clemency bid denied on execution eve

Davis' supporters staged vigils in the U.S. and Europe, declaring "I am Troy Davis" on signs, T-shirts and the Internet. Some tried increasingly frenzied measures, urging prison workers to stay home and even posting a judge's phone number online, hoping people will press him to put a stop to the lethal injection. President Barack Obama deflected calls for him to get involved.

"They say death row; we say hell no!" protesters shouted outside the Jackson prison where Davis was to be executed. In Washington, a crowd outside the Supreme Court yelled the same chant.

The crowd outside the prison swelled to more than 500 as night fell and a few dozen riot police stood watch. About 10 counterdemonstrators also were there, showing support for the death penalty and MacPhail's family.

"He had all the chances in the world," Anneliese MacPhail said of Davis in a telephone interview. "It has got to come to an end."

At a Paris rally, many of the roughly 150 demonstrators carried signs emblazoned with Davis' face. "Everyone who looks a little bit at the case knows that there is too much doubt to execute him," Nicolas Krameyer of Amnesty International said at the protest.

Davis' execution has been stopped three times since 2007, but on Wednesday the 42-year-old appeared to be out of legal options.

As his last hours ticked away, an upbeat and prayerful Davis turned down an offer for a special last meal as he met with friends, family and supporters.

"Troy Davis has impacted the world," his sister Martina Correia said at a news conference. "They say, `I am Troy Davis,' in languages he can't speak."

Correia, who is battling breast cancer and using a wheelchair as she helps coordinate rallies and other events, called on people to push for change in the justice system. Then she said, "I'm going to stand here for my brother," and got up with help from people around her.

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously.

"He doesn't want to spend three hours away from his family on what could be the last day of his life if it won't make any difference," Marsh said.

Amnesty International says nearly 1 million people have signed a petition on Davis' behalf. His supporters include former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

"I'm trying to bring the word to the young people: There is too much doubt," rapper Big Boi, of the Atlanta-based group Outkast, said at a church near the prison.

Troy Anthony Davis enters a courtroom for a hearing Jan. 16, 1991, during his trial for the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail.

/ AP Photo

The U.S. Supreme Court gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year, though the high court itself did not hear the merits of the case.

He was convicted in 1991 of killing MacPhail, who was working as a security guard at the time. MacPhail rushed to the aid of a homeless man who prosecutors said Davis was bashing with a handgun after asking him for a beer. Prosecutors said Davis had a smirk on his face as he shot the officer to death in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah.

No gun was ever found, but prosecutors say shell casings were linked to an earlier shooting for which Davis was convicted.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter, but several of them have recanted their accounts and some jurors have said they've changed their minds about his guilt. Others have claimed a man who was with Davis that night has told people he actually shot the officer.

"Such incredibly flawed eyewitness testimony should never be the basis for an execution," Marsh said. "To execute someone under these circumstances would be unconscionable."

State and federal courts, however, have repeatedly upheld Davis' conviction. One federal judge dismissed the evidence advanced by Davis' lawyers as "largely smoke and mirrors."

"He has had ample time to prove his innocence," said MacPhail's widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris. "And he is not innocent."

The latest motion filed by Davis' attorneys in Butts County Court disputed testimony from the expert who linked the shell casings to the earlier shooting involving Davis, and challenged testimony from two witnesses. Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson and the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the appeal, and prosecutors said the filing was just a delay tactic.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has helped lead the charge to stop the execution, said it was considering asking President Barack Obama to intervene.

Obama cannot grant Davis clemency for a state conviction. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said he could halt the execution by asking for an investigation into a federal issue if one exists.

Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying that although Obama "has worked to ensure accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system," it was not appropriate for him "to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution."

Dozens of protesters outside the White House called on the president to step in, and about 12 were arrested for disobeying police orders.

"The fact that the White House hasn't addressed this issue is completely disrespectful," college student Talibah Arnett said.

Davis was not the only U.S. inmate scheduled to die Wednesday evening. In Texas, white supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was put to death for the 1998 dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Jr., one of the most notorious hate crime murders in recent U.S. history.

Davis' best chance may have come last year, in a hearing ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the first time in 50 years that justices had considered a request to grant a new trial for a death row inmate.

The high court set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence -- a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, the justices didn't take up the case.

The planned execution has drawn widespread criticism in Europe, where politicians and activists made last-minute pleas for a stay.

Spencer Lawton, the district attorney who secured Davis' conviction in 1991, said he was embarrassed for the judicial system -- not because of the execution, but because it has taken so long to carry out.

"What we have had is a manufactured appearance of doubt which has taken on the quality of legitimate doubt itself. And all of it is exquisitely unfair," said Lawton, who retired as Chatham County's head prosecutor in 2008. "The good news is we live in a civilized society where questions like this are decided based on fact in open and transparent courts of law, and not on street corners."

[JHarry092111]

Less we not forget, he was a part of the killing even if he did not actually pull the trigger of the gun that was never found??? He may not be the triggerman but he was NOT innocent of the crime. He relished in the killing. HOWEVER, the greater evil is his murder by all those associated with his execution hiding behind public titles, they all committed pre-meditated murder, they all together plunged the needle. They ALL (including the US Supreme Court) will have to answer to the real highest court. Amen.

[amazedd]

I think some people are totally missing the point behind the death penalty. It is not about retribution or an eye-for-an-eye thing. It isn't going to make the victims family feel any better or bring the dead back from the grave. It's a DETERRENT!

Criminals talk about how they go to prison to pay for their crimes, as though after spending some time behind bars they've made all the payments on their crime. You don't pay anything by going to prison, you cost the State a sheetfull of money, nothing else. The only reason there's a place called prison is so that people will think twice before committing a crime. Consider the pro's and con's of your actions; is it worth your while, will you risk it?

If people know that if they murder, they will hang, they'll be much less eager to kill someone.

And for all of those bleeding-hearts, agonizing at the very thought of execution, think of all the people who would be alive and kicking if the death penalty had been in the back of the minds of those about to commit a murder.

And that's why it has to be such a big deal, to serve as a deterrent, so that people will fear the death penalty and NOT kill anyone in the first place.

Nowadays, the chances that an innocent man will be wrongly executed are very small; but the amount of people who will not die if criminals fear the death penalty are enormous; by a ratio of 1,000 to 1, at least!

[potatoeandpeas]

If it really were such a deterrent, how do you explain the existence of any further murders? And how do you base your facts on the amount of people who have not been murdered due to this "deterrent"? 1.000 to 1 at least? Is that a fact or a sudden guess?

[31Cnet]

Jail and the death penalty aren't deterrents for criminals and murderers...just think about this...if you want to murder someone, do you think you give a damn about the law? Some criminals aren't really given respect on the street until they've gone to jail or murdered someone....oh please!!

[smittyc]

I think if he had manned up and confessed, said he was high on drugs and alcohol he would not be getting executed. I Think if he had let it go at the first shot, when he downed the officier, he would not be getting executed, but to walk back and shoot the officer a second time under his arm and avoiding the bullet proof vest with the police officer already shot and unconcious and a big grin on his face, it's his turn now. He used the gun an hour earlier at a party and was convicted of that as well and was Identified at the party as well as the shooter. Amnesty International is not fooling anybody, they just want the death penalty done away with and used this guy as there poster child.

[Europeane]

All civilised people want the death penalty done away with.

[RealiteBites]

Well, in a democracy where majority rules such that there's a death penalty, where the degree of certainty for convicting somebody of capitol murder is beyond a reasonable doubt (but not beyond ANY doubt), you never have perfect certitude.

If he exhausted all appeals, then with the execution, justice was served. To disagree with that is to disagree with the majority (and their support of the death penalty), or with the standard of review. But justice according to the legal system was in fact served ...

[Europeane]

"That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the whole world"

President John Adams


"The voice of the majority is no proof of justice."

[RealiteBites]

Nor is a quite from John Adams ... give me a break ...

[gondring1]

So glad he's gone.

[potatoeandpeas]

And your point is????

[dslovejoy]

Disregarding the celebrity endorsements, disregarding all of the hoopla that surrounds this case, the one thing that makes me wonder is the fact that there are only 2 witnesses who haven't recanted their story, and several of the ones that did recant professed to feeling intimidated to give their testimony in favor of the prosecution.
If the police and prosecutors did in fact coerce the witnesses, that should automatically invalidate the conviction.

[noel90210]

don't do it. it'll bring bad karma to the usa. write an email to the governor and obama, hurry!

[truthtim]

Keep Troy Davis Alive
Speak about him, remember him, join I Am Troy Davis
http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Am-Troy-Davis/117721128333711?v=wall

[gondring1]

I AM TROY DAVIS!

I am a murdering lying creep!

Keep me alive...remind people of how I shot at a passing car and hit a passenger in that car. Keep me alive...remind people of how I was pistol whipping a homeless man when off-duty officer Mark MacPhail tried to stop me--so I shot him. Keep me alive...remind people that I changed my story, and that although I was convicted of various crimes, I tried to pin them on others.

Oh, yes...keep me alive. Remind good people to be wary of creeps like me.

[Tom_the_Railnut]

I AM TROY DAVIS!

I fooled most of the intelligencia into believing I am an innocent here, where in fact I shot a police officer once to take him down, and a second time to kill him when he was already incapacitated.

I AM TROY DAVIS!

I carry the lie of my entire life on my lips even unto the executioner because I know that once I leave this mortal coil I am bound for a hell that I tried to visit upon all who ever knew me.

YES! I AM TROY DAVIS! ADIOS, M F'ers!

[Adam_Baum]

This event, as well as the numerous cheering comments for the death of a human being, is one of the several reasons I am leaving the United States for a bit. I'm not even sure if I am coming back. I cannot help but wonder what the US will look like if the reactionary Conservatives get their wish, and all of the academics leave (taking their "science" and "hope" with them) - I hope they enjoy manufacturing products to sell in other countries (open any new Mercedes or Volkswagen or Fiat plants lately?)

[gondring1]

So long, Adam_Baum. Please stay away a good long while. I have plenty of science to do right here while you're gone, and I'm sure I will have more hope if you can take all your left-wing buddies with you.

[s-flames]

We'll be better off without you Adam_Baum. It's f***s like yourself who have made this nation as messed up as it is. You're like spoiled children who make a mess but refuse to stick around and clean it up. Good riddance.

BTW, the man in the White House who could've helped Troy Davis, but refused, isn't a reactionary conservative. He is one of you.

[cardavian2004ga]

Good article until you ended it with comments from Spencer Lawton which lets me know where you stand on this. This IS a country of laws but the PEOPLE or the (STREETS)is where questions are decided. If the System was accurate starting from the police to the court then it would not have gotten this far for the masses to get involved. the issue is not necessarily of his guilt but rather if he DESERVES death!!