This undated file photo provided by the Georgia Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Troy Davis. Georgia corrections officials have scheduled a Sept. 21, 2011, execution date for Davis, for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. Davis, now 42, insists he’s innocent and his lawyers, arguing they could prove it, have managed to spare him from three execution dates in the last four years. (AP Photo/Georgia Department of Corrections, File)ATLANTA – Convicted cop killer Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a crime he says he did not commit.
Vigils outside Georgia’s death chamber were set. Protests were planned. Davis’ attorneys said he was willing to take a polygraph test if the pardons board would consider its results. And they didn’t rule out filing one last legal appeal, though they know it’s a long shot.
In Europe, where the planned execution has drawn widespread criticism, legislators and activists were making a last-minute appeal to the state of Georgia to refrain from executing Davis. Amnesty International and other groups planned a protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Paris later Wednesday.
Renate Wohlwend of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly noted doubts raised about Davis’ conviction. She said that “to carry out this irrevocable act now would be a terrible mistake which could lead to a tragic injustice.”
Davis is to be executed by injection at 7 p.m. 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 had been attacked.