Advocates Rally to Change Davis Death Sentence

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – A coalition of activists is trying to save a man on death row for killing a Savannah police officer. Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled for execution a week from today.

Officer Mark McPhail was shot to death in a Savannah parking lot in 1989. Davis was convicted of that murder two years later.

But seven of the nine witnesses in that trial have recanted. One of them is Jeffrey Sapps. Sapps grew up in Davis' neighborhood and says he didn't witness anything the night of the shooting. But police showed up at his door twice.

SAPPS: So they put me in the backseat of the car, took me down tot the police barracks. That's when they said, We heard that Troy confessed to you that he shot Officer McPhail.' So I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.' Yes you do, you know what we're talking about. Because if you don't know what we're talking about we're going to lock you up for withholding evidence.'

Sapps complied with the police demand. But at trial, he tried to deny that the statement was his. It made no difference. Davis' lawyer, Jason Ewart, says that other witnesses have similar stories.

Ewart says that a higher court should have reviewed the case. All of them, however, have declined.

EWART: The courts just refused to play their judicial function, to examine evidence, to look at credibility.

Today, Ewart and a host of advocates from Amnesty International and other local groups issued a public plea to the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles. The Board is nearly Davis' last lifeline, and will hear pleas to change his sentence on Monday, a day before the scheduled execution.