Protesters chant Anti-death penalty slogans for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis In Jackson, Ga., Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011. Davis is scheduled to die Wednesday for killing off-duty Savannah officer Mark MacPhail. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton)GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press
JACKSON, Ga. – Troy Davis, the condemned inmate who convinced hundreds of thousands of people but not the justice system of his innocence, filed an eleventh-hour plea Wednesday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Georgia authorities from executing him for the murder of an off-duty police officer.
His execution had been set to begin at 7 p.m., but Georgia prison officials were still waiting for the high court’s decision nearly two hours later.
“It is killing me, to tell you the truth. I don’t know what to expect anymore,” said Anneliese MacPhail, mother of Mark MacPhail, the man Davis was convicted of killing in 1989.
Though Davis’ attorneys say seven of nine key witnesses against him have disputed all or parts of their testimony, state and federal judges have repeatedly ruled against granting him a new trial. As the court losses piled up Wednesday, his offer to take a polygraph test was rejected and the pardons board refused to give him one more hearing.