Supreme Court denies Troy Davis appeal

Oct. 14—The Supreme Court has outraged death penalty opponents by refusing to allow a new hearing in the case of Troy Davis. Davis, an African American on death row in Georgia, was convicted in the 1989 killing of a police officer despite what Amnesty International calls “overwhelming doubts of his guilt.”

At Davis’s trial, no physical forensic evidence was presented to implicate him in the killing. His conviction rested solely on the testimony of nine witnesses. However, since that time, seven of the nine have recanted their testimony, with at least two saying that they were pressured by police to finger Davis as the killer.

Without comment—only a one-line order rejecting Davis’s appeal—the Supreme Court has abetted another legal lynching of a Black man. Reports indicate that the execution could take place within the next two weeks.

—LeiLani Dowell