A Georgia man who admitted to being at the scene when a police officer was killed, was given a last minute reprieve by the U.S. Supreme court less than 2 hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection.
Troy Davis, 39, was a teenager in 1989 when officer Mark MacPhail was shot to death. MacPhail, 27, was working off-duty as a security guard at a Savannah, Georgia bus station when he rushed to the aid of a homeless man who was being pistol-whipped by three individuals.
MacPhail, who is white, was shot and killed when he confronted Davis and his accomplices.
9 witnesses identified Davis as the shooter, but 7 of the 9 witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Rev. Al Sharpton, actress Susan Sarandon and Pope Benedict XVI, are among the notables who have appealed on behalf of Davis.
Davis was to be executed tonight at 6 PM. The stay of execution will remain in effect while the court considers Davis’ appeal.
Meanwhile, Richard “Ric Ric” Henyard, 34, is scheduled to die in Florida’s electric chair tonight for the shooting deaths of two sisters and the rape and robbery of their mother.
Henyard and an accomplice, Alfonza Smalls — who was 14 at the time — were convicted of abducting Dorothy Lewis and her daughters, Jamilya Lewis, 7, and Jasmine Lewis, 3, from a Lake County, Florida grocery store parking lot in 1993.
Lewis was raped and shot four times. The girls were each shot in the head when they cried out for their mother. Henyard is scheduled to die at 7 PM.
Lewis is now a Pastor and motivational speaker. She does not plan to attend tonight’s execution.
