Supreme Court Delays Decision in Georgia Death Row Case

The U.S. Supreme Court

closed its term today without a deciding on a pending appeal from Troy Davis

, who has spent nearly two decades on Georgia’s death row for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

Davis was convicted in 1989 of shooting a police officer in a Savannah parking lot. The central evidence against him at trial was the testimony of several eyewitnesses, most of whom have since recanted, saying the police coerced them into testifying against Davis. Some of the new evidence pointing to Davis’ innocence has never been heard by a court, and Davis’ lawyers were asking the U.S. Supreme Court to order a new evidentiary hearing. The court will not make a decision in Davis’ case until September, but Davis’ advocates are asking local officials to step in this summer.

Davis’ advocates today delivered a petition to the Chatham County District Attorney’s office with 60,000 signatures calling for an evidentiary hearing.

“We have sufficient evidence, we believe, to show that Troy Anthony Davis is innocent," said Prince Jackson, president of the NAACP's Savannah branch. "We are asking that he be given a chance. After all, his life is at stake."

Read the full story here

. (Macon Journal, 06/29/09)