Cop killer Troy Davis will die for his crime tomorrow at 7pm. This morning, a Georgia parole board denied the 42-year-old’s petition for clemency, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
In making this decision, the parole board sent a strong message to criminals that one day they too will face the executioner if they take an innocent life.
Barring any last minute interventions by the US Supreme court, Davis will be strapped to a gurney at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia and administered a cocktail of lethal drugs that will cease his breathing and stop his heart at 7pm local time on Wednesday.
“It’s the wrong decision,” said one of Davis’ attorneys, Jason Ewart. “It’s a mistake.”
Davis’ attorneys had pleaded their client’s case to the parole board for three hours Monday. They claimed Davis would be sent to death under an “enormous cloud of doubt” about his guilt.
But a jury of Davis’ peers saw no such cloud of doubt in 1991 when they convicted the career criminal of shooting officer Mark MacPhail to death in Savannah, Georgia in 1989.
MacPhail, who was working a second job as a security guard, was shot to death as he went to the aid of a homeless man being attacked by Davis and Sylvester “Redd” Coles in a parking lot.
MacPhail was shot in the heart and face by a black man in a white shirt, according to witnesses. The officer died instantly before he could draw his weapon. Davis was wearing a white shirt that night.
Earlier that day, Davis was involved in the shooting of another man during a road rage incident. That victim survived his injuries.
On August 19, Coles, went to police and implicated Davis in MacPhail’s killing. That same evening, one of Davis’ sisters drove Davis to Atlanta in an attempt to evade arrest.
But those facts have been lost amidst all the hand wringing and protesting by Davis’s supporters.
Late Monday, Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, said the family was “just praying for a good outcome.”
“He’s guilty,” MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said. “We need to go ahead and execute him.”
