Troy Davis demands polygraph hours before execution

Troy Davis is set to be executed Wednesday night by lethal injection in a case that many commentators have claimed may be one of America’s biggest miscarriages of justice.

After Georgia’s pardons board rejected a bid for clemency on Tuesday, Davis was left with little to do but wait to die.

Now his backers are frantically scrabbling for any way to delay the execution, scheduled for 7 pm (2300 GMT).

They asked prisons officials to let him take a polygraph test; urged prison workers to strike or call in sick; asked prosecutors to block the execution and they even considered a desperate appeal for White House intervention.

Davis has gotten support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI.

A US Supreme Court ruling gave him a nearly unprecedented opportunity to prove his innocence last year, but then denied his call for a new trial. State and federal courts repeatedly upheld his conviction for the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard in Savannah when he was shot dead rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked.

• Georgia parole board rejects appeal for Troy Davis20 Sep 2011
• High-profile death row inmate pins last hopes on bid for parole20 Sep 2011

Davis’ attorneys say he was convicted based on flawed testimony that has been largely recanted by witnesses, but prosecutors and MacPhail’s relatives say they have no doubt the right man is being punished.

As Davis’ attorneys considered filing another appeal, his supporters planned vigils and rallies around the world. Nearly one million people signed a petition seeking clemency, according to Amnesty International.

“We’ve been praying about it and with God on our side anything can happen,” DeJaun Correia-Davis, the condemned man’s 17-year-old nephew, told a rally of hundreds in front of the Georgia Capitol late Tuesday. “Let this be a case that not only highlights the death penalty but will hopefully be a big part in bringing it to an end.”

Later Tuesday, Davis attorney Stephen Marsh told The Associated Press they had asked state prison officials and the pardons board to allow Davis to take a polygraph test.

Mr Marsh hopes the pardons board will agree to consider results of the test. The machines aren’t reliable measures of guilt but they “may tell you something about innocence,” he said.

A prisons spokeswoman said she was unaware of the request and the pardons board didn’t immediately respond.

Georgia initially planned to execute Davis in July 2007, but the pardons board granted him a stay less than 24 hours before he was to die. The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in a year later and halted the lethal injection just two hours before he was to be executed. And a federal appeals court halted another planned execution a few months later.

Mr MacPhail was shot to death August 19, 1989, after coming to the aid of Larry Young, a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped in a Burger King parking lot.

Prosecutors say Davis had a smirk on his face when he shot the officer to death.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter. Shell casings were linked to a shooting hours earlier that Davis was convicted of. There was no other physical evidence. No blood or DNA tied Davis to the crime and the weapon was never located.

Davis’ attorneys say seven of nine key witnesses who testified at his trial have disputed all or parts of their testimony.

Quiana Glover, who did not testify at the original trial, said one of the witnesses who did not recant told her he was the real shooter. That man, who was with Davis that night, could not be reached for comment on Monday and Tuesday, and did not answer his door this week when a reporter visited.

On Tuesday, Davis was spending his last quiet hours with friends, family and supporters, said Wende Gozan Brown, an Amnesty International staffer who visited him.

“He said he’s in good spirits, he’s prayerful and he’s at peace. But he said he will not stop fighting until he’s taken his last breath. And he said Georgia is about to snuff out the life of an innocent man,” she said.

Mr MacPhail’s family, which urged the pardons board on Monday to reject Davis’ clemency bid, said his execution will bring them peace.

“That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we got,” said MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail. “We wanted to get it over with, and for him to get his punishment.”