Jackson, GA -- Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis, who faces lethal injection Tuesday for the murder of a Savannah police officer, prayed with civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, the latest prominent figure appealing to spare his life.
Sharpton said Davis, 39, was "surprisingly upbeat" Saturday night after the two prayed together at the Jackson prison. Davis has claimed he is innocent in the shooting death of officer Mark Allen MacPhail, who was killed on Aug. 19, 1989.
Sharpton spent about 35 minutes with Davis, and said by phone that the death-row inmate reflected on how he became a murder suspect.
"He said he got in with the wrong crowd and thought one of the guys he was hanging with killed" MacPhail, Sharpton said. "He said young people should be careful who they hang around" with.
Since Davis' 1991 trial, several key witnesses have recanted their testimony.
Witness testimony formed the core of the prosecution's case because physical evidence was scant: no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no DNA.
In a statement Friday, Carter said he asked the parole board to reconsider the case, saying it "illustrates the deep flaws in the application of the death penalty in this country."
Carter wrote that "executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice."
The case has attracted worldwide attention, with calls to stop his execution from Pope Benedict XVI, Amnesty International and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu. Rallies have been held as far away as Paris.
Posted By: The SISTAHS Ministry
Monday, September 22nd 2008 at 5:37PM
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