Will Alabama execute Darrell Grayson without a DNA test?

Activists rallied yesterday on the steps of the Alabama capitol building in Montgomery in support of DNA testing for death row inmate Darrell Grayson, who is scheduled to be executed today. Several organizations, including the Innocence Project, have called for Gov. Bob Riley to delay the execution until authorities are able to conduct DNA testing that could prove Grayson’s innocence or guilt. A statement from the governor’s office said he would make a decision today "before the execution is carried out."

Esther Brown, executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Grayson, who is black, was pressured into a confession by white police officers, tried by a court that provided only $500 to be spent on his defense, and convicted by an all-white jury.

"What he got was Alabama justice," Brown said, standing just below the spot on the Capitol steps where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy in 1861.

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. (Birmingham News, 07/26/2007)