Troy Davis' Claim of Innocence Rejected By Georgia Judge

by Amy Judd | August 24, 2010 at 08:51 am

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Troy Davis Has Failed to Prove His Innocence Ruled Judge William T. Moore Jr.

Troy Davis maintains he is innocent and was wrongly convicted of the death of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in 1989, however, Judge Moore Jr. did not rule in his favor on Tuesday.

"Ultimately, while Mr. Davis' new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors," Moore wrote. "The vast majority of the evidence at trial remains largely intact, and the new evidence is largely not credible or lacking in probative value."

In 1989 Officer MacPhail was killed while coming to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped. Davis was convicted of the killing and sentenced to death and has been on death row fighting his sentence ever since.

Since the trial, a number of witnesses that said Davis killed MacPhail changed their mind and some have even fingered another man named Sylvester 'Redd' Cole as having killed the officer.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, during the ruling on Tuesday Judge Moore said that it was the fault of Davis' legal team during the trial for not calling Mr. Cole to the stand. He did not believe that Davis was innocent of the crime and will not overturn the ruling that Davis belongs on death row.

The family has stated they will continue to fight the ruling.

Even celebrities and world figures have asked the state of Georgia to give Davis a new trial, including Susan Sarandon, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope Benedict XVI.