Breakthrough: Death Row Prisoner Troy Davis to Get New Innocence Hearing

Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet at 10:30 AM on August 17, 2009.

A major breakthrough has just occurred in the case of Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a federal judge to "receive testimony and findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence."

In other words: the overwhelming proof that Troy Davis is an innocent man, wrongfully convicted for a 20-year old murder, will finally be considered in a court of law.

Troy Davis has come within hours of execution multiple times over the past few years, only to be spared at the last moment each time. He was convicted in 1991 for the murder of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Georgia, a conviction based entirely on eyewitness testimony. No physical evidence linked him to the crime -- and in the years he has spent languishing on death row, seven out of the nine eyewitnesses who condemned him to die have recanted their testimony, with some admitting they were coerced by police. One of the witnesses who has not recanted is Sylvester "Red" Coles, who many believe committed the murder.

Today's decision by the Supreme Court is hugely significant. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out, "His bid to the nation’s highest court was his last chance in the court system."

Ruling in favor of Davis, Justice John Paul Stevens "cited prior court precedent that said it would be 'an atrocious violation of our Constitution and the principles upon which it is based' to execute an innocent man," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Imagine a petitioner in Davis's situation who possesses new evidence conclusively and definitively proving, beyond any scintilla of doubt, that he is an innocent man,” Steven wrote. "The dissent’s reasoning would allow such a petitioner to be put to death nonetheless."

The Troy Davis case has been at the center of the largest anti-death penalty movement in the past few years. Amnesty International, along with numerous groups across the globe, have rallied around his innocence, staging national days of action and gaining the attention and support of President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Pope Benedict XV.

For more of AlterNet's coverage of the Troy Davis case, go here.

Tagged as: death penalty, jimmy carter, capital punishment, troy davis

Liliana Segura is a staff writer and editor of AlterNet's Rights and Liberties and War on Iraq Special Coverage.