Innocence Network files brief in Georgia death row case

Troy Davis has been on Georgia’s death row for more than 15 years for a murder he has always maintained he didn’t commit. Since his conviction, all but three 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. The Georgia Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Davis’ bid for a new trial on Tuesday, and that same day the Innocence Network filed a brief asking the court to grant Davis a new trial.

The Innocence Network is an association of nearly 40 member organizations, including the Innocence Project, dedicated to providing pro bono legal and investigative services to indigent prisoners whose actual innocence may be established by post-conviction evidence. The Networkn doesn’t represent Davis but filed the brief as “a friend of the court.” www.innocencecetwork.org

The Network brief details the ways in which eyewitness misidentification and snitch testimony, both major factors in Davis’ conviction, have contributed to wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing. The Network is calling on the court to grant Davis a new trial because “the evidence used to convict Troy Davis was entirely unreliable and raises a real question of his actual innocence.”

Download the full brief here

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Read more about Troy Davis

and watch messages sent to him by supporters on the

“Free Troy Davis” YouTube page

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