Death Row inmate Get the Thumbs Down!

Troy Anthony Davis should have been granted a
new trial in his murder case but the Georgia State Supreme
said no way even though most of the witnesses recanted
their story. Check out the article below and see if you
agree with the courts decision.


The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday turned down a death row inmate's request for a new trial, even though most of the key witnesses in the case have recanted or contradicted their earlier testimony.

Troy Anthony Davis, 39, was convicted of killing a Savannah police officer after a 1991 trial based entirely on witnesses' accounts. Seven of the nine who implicated Davis have since changed their story in sworn affidavits, with several claiming they were pressured by police in their earlier statements.

In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that the recantation testimony suffered from a "general lack of credibility." Justice Harold D. Melton, writing for the majority, said many of the witnesses who had "allegedly recanted have merely stated that they do not feel able to identify the shooter."

"We simply cannot disregard the jury's verdict in this case," Melton wrote.

In a strongly worded dissent, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote that the majority opinion was "overly rigid." Disregarding all recantation testimony, even when it offered a convincing argument that prior testimony was false, "simply defies all logic and morality," she wrote.

"In this case," Sears noted, "nearly every witness who identified Davis as the shooter at trial has now disclaimed his or her ability to do so reliably."

Davis has been on death row since 1991, when he was convicted of killing Mark Allen MacPhail, 27, an off-duty Savannah police officer working as a security guard. MacPhail was shot to death in a parking lot after rushing to help a homeless man who had been assaulted outside a bus station. With no murder weapon, prosecutors relied on witnesses to convict Davis.

Yet the case against Davis, defense attorneys say, has unraveled as the seven witnesses changed their testimony. One of the two remaining witnesses against Davis, they point out, is himself a suspect who has been incriminated by new witnesses.





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