Troy Anthony Davis Granted Last Minute Stay of Execution by U.S. Supreme Court

TROY ANTHONY DAVIS, who was scheduled for execution at 7:00 p.m. today in Georgia's death chamber, was granted a last minute stay of execution by the United States Supreme Court.  The condemned man did not know he had been granted the stay until he saw it on the news just two hours before he was to die.

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U.S. Supreme Court stays Georgia execution

JACKSON, Georgia (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute reprieve to a Georgia man convicted fewer than two hours before he was to be executed for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty police officer.

Troy Anthony Davis first learned that his execution had been stayed when he saw it on the news, he told CNN in an exclusive phone interview minutes after the stay was announced.

Davis has long said he didn't kill a Savannah, Georgia, police officer, and the U.S. Supreme Court was the last option for Davis to have his execution postponed. It was scheduled to move forward at 7 p.m. ET.

Davis, 39, was convicted in 1991 of killing Officer Mark MacPhail as MacPhail responded to an altercation in a Burger King parking lot.

Seven of the nine witnesses who initially testified that Davis was the killer have recanted. There was no physical evidence presented at his trial, and no weapon was found. But Davis' petitions for a new trial have been denied.

On Tuesday, Davis refused his last meal, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections, which will still provide him with macaroni and cheese, pinto beans, green beans, lettuce and tomato salad, corn bread, fruit cobbler and tea.

Many had asked Georgia to grant Davis a new trial: celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and the Indigo Girls; world leaders such as former President Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI; and former and current U.S. lawmakers like Bob Barr, Carolyn Moseley Braun and John Lewis.

Amnesty International has issued a 39-page report questioning his conviction, and protesters have been gathering at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta this week. Davis is scheduled to be executed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail of Columbus, told media outlets last week that she is "disgusted" by the calls to spare Davis' life and is not convinced by Davis' supporters' claims that there is a more likely suspect.

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Mary Neal
Website:  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill