Innocence Blog

Execution date set for Georgia man

Posted: September 4, 2008 3:58 pm

Troy Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for 17 years for a murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit. Last year, he came within 24 hours of execution before receiving a last-minute stay. In March of this year, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 against granting him a new trial. Now, a new execution date has been set for September 23rd.

Davis was convicted almost entirely based on eyewitness testimony. Since his conviction, all but two of the 13 witnesses who testified against Davis at trial have recanted, many of them saying they were coerced to offer false eyewitness and snitch testimony by police officers.

Read more about Davis’ case and send a letter to the Georgia Board of Prison and Parole asking them to stop the execution so Davis can get another day in court.

Read about the role of eyewitness misidentification in more than 75 percent of wrongful convictions later overturned by DNA testing.