"Request for Lie Detector Test for Davis Is Denied," is an updating report at the New York Times written by Kim Severson.
An official of the N.A.A.C.P. said on Wednesday that the vote by the Georgia parole board to deny clemency to Troy Davis was so close that he hoped there might still be a chance to save him from execution at 7 p.m.
Edward O. DuBose, president of the Georgia chapter, said the organization had “very reliable information from the board members directly that the board was split 3 to 2 on whether to grant clemency.”
“The fact that that kind of division was in the room is even more of a sign that there is a strong possibility to save Troy’s life,” he said.
The N.A.A.C.P said it had been in contact with the Department of Justice on Wednesday, in the hope that the federal government would intervene on the basis of civil rights violations, meaning irregularities in the original investigation and at the trial.
At the same time, hundreds of people were starting to gather at the prison in Jackson, about an hour’s drive south of Atlanta, where Mr. Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Earlier in the day, his lawyers asked the state for one more chance to spare him: a lie detector test.
But the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Parole, which on Tuesday denied Mr. Davis’s clemency after a daylong hearing Monday, quickly responded that there would be no reconsideration of the case, and the polygraph test was abandoned.
Mr. Davis’s supporters were also reaching out to the prosecutor in the original case, asking that he persuade the original judge to rescind the death order. Benjamin T. Jealous, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who planned to visit Mr. Davis on Wednesday, was trying to ask President Obama for a reprieve.
The Innocence Project, which has had a hand in the exoneration of 17 death-row inmates through the use of DNA testing, sent a letter to the Chatham County district attorney, Larry Chisolm, urging him to withdraw the execution warrant against Mr. Davis, although there is no DNA evidence at issue in the case.
The updating AP report is, "Ga inmate's execution nears; protests worldwide." It's by Greg Bluestein.
Troy Davis supporters in the U.S. and Europe were trying just about anything to spare him from lethal injection Wednesday evening for killing an off-duty Georgia policeman, a crime he and others have insisted for years that he did not commit.
Supporters planned vigils around the world. They'll be outside Georgia's death row prison in Jackson and at U.S. embassies in Europe.
The 42-year-old's most realistic, though slim, chance for reprieve is through the courts, and his lawyers are trying. His backers have tried increasingly frenzied measures: offering for Davis to take a polygraph test, urging prison workers to strike or call in sick, posting a judge's phone number online, urging people to call and ask him to put a stop to the 7 p.m. execution. They've even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention.
"We're trying everything we can do, everything under the law," said Chester Dunham, a civil rights activist and talk show host protesting in Savannah, where in 1989, prosecutors say Davis fatally shot 27-year-old Mark MacPhail.
Davis' supporters include former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and a former FBI director, the NAACP, as well as conservative figures. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year, but ultimately didn't hear the merits of the case.
"Rep. John Lewis Laments Denial of Clemency for Troy Davis," is from the State Column.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) released the following statement on the denial of clemency for Davis:
“This is a sad, grim day in Georgia. It was so encouraging that over one million people signed petitions, that law-and-order officials like former FBI Director Williams Sessions and former Rep. Bob Barr, a conservative Republican from Georgia, Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, President Jimmy Carter, even believers in the death penalty saw the error in executing a man who might be innocent.
“But somehow those cries were not enough. Today we have confirmed that the administration of law in Georgia is more important than the search for justice, that the letter of the legal codes holds more power than the insistence of the truth, and that the outstretched hands of mercy, of leniency and forgiveness are not a viable part of the judicial system in our state.
“We have come a great distance in Georgia, but today we have demonstrated we still have a great distance to go before we build a society based on simple justice that values the dignity and the worth of every human being. We are not there yet. I am deeply saddened and deeply disappointed by this decision, but in light of all I have seen through the years, it does not surprise me.
“I send my deepest prayers and sympathy to Troy Davis and his family, especially his sister Martina Correia, his nephew, and his mother who passed not long ago. I thank them for their long-hard 20-year struggle to speak the truth and the chance they gave our state to bear witness to the truth. My prayers are also with the family of police officer Mark McPhail whose life was senselessly taken years ago. They too have suffered because justice was not done. I hope all those involved will find peace. I hope they will find true peace, a peace that humanity cannot give, but is only granted in the highest realms of heaven.”
Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr has written, "Ruling to execute Troy Davis violates core principles," at CNN.
Only the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles stood between life and death for Troy Anthony Davis, and the core principles of American jurisprudence should have been the board's guide. But the board ignored those principles in denying Davis clemency.
Davis was convicted in 1991 of the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. But the trial included no physical evidence to support his conviction. The prosecution produced no murder weapon, no DNA evidence and no surveillance tapes.
He was sentenced to death on the basis of nine so-called eyewitnesses, who testified in the trial. Seven of those witnesses, however, have since recanted or materially changed their stories. The jury, for instance, relied on two people who did not witness the crime but who testified that Davis had confessed to the shooting. Since then, both have said they were lying.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles declared in 2007 that it "will not allow an execution to proceed in this state unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt as to the guilt of the accused."
And in the Davis case, a significant measure of doubt remained.
And:
I support the death penalty, and have for a long time. And I am not making a judgment as to whether Davis is guilty or innocent. But surely the citizens of Savannah and the state of Georgia want justice served on behalf of MacPhail, the police officer.
Imposing a death sentence on the skimpiest of evidence does not serve the interest of justice. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles did not honor the standards of justice on which all Americans depend by granting clemency. In doing so, it will allow a man to be executed when we cannot be assured of his guilt.
That was the final admirable principle standing between Davis and his scheduled death by lethal injection Wednesday. And the parole board did not uphold it.
At Huffington Post, Russell Simmons writes, "Unbelievable That Troy Davis Is Set To Die At 7PM Tonight!"
Our system of justice is SUPPOSED to convict a citizen when there is beyond a reasonable doubt. Especially when it comes to the brutal business of the government taking a man's life. A man, a black American man, Troy Davis, is about to be killed in Georgia, tonight, Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 7:00 pm for the alleged 1989 murder of police officer (here is the 411 on Troy). There IS reasonable doubt of this man's guilt. A witness testified that another man confessed to the murders. Multiple jurors recanted their original verdicts. Former FBI director William Sessions called for the death sentence -- by definition permanent -- to be commuted. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution argued that the basis of the guilty verdict is now in doubt. This is America! We don't ask people to prove their innocence! It is supposed to work the other way.
If you can't prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt then you CAN'T kill this man. This case has the world's attention. Is our bloodlust so great that we have to ignore all statements of doubt by those who have looked long and hard at the case and apply the cruelest punishment of all -- death -- which can never be remedied? This man is about to be murdered. Make no mistake: every death sentence is a premeditated murder. Regardless of how we justify it, the execution of a prisoner is a state sanctioned, premeditated murder. And in this country it needs to stop. Make your voices heard.
Earlier coverage of Troy Davis' case begins at the link.
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