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Ossian Sweet ( /ˈɒʃən ˈswiːt/;^[2] 30 October 1895–20 March 1960) was an American physician. He is most notable for his self defense in 1925 of his newly-purchased home in a white neighborhood against a mob attempting to force him out of the neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, and the subsequent acquittal by an all-white jury of murder charges against him, his family, and friends who helped defend his home, in what came to be known as the Sweet Trials.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Sweet was born the second son to Henry Sweet and Dora Devaughn in Bartow, Florida just eight days before the death of his oldest brother, Oscar.^[1] Henry Sweet was a former slave from Florida and was able to buy land in Bartow in 1898, where he moved his entire family. There they lived in a small farmhouse and all the children helped with the farm animals and in the fields. The Sweets had a total of ten children living in cramped quarters and living on the little money they could earn through their farm. At age five, Ossian "allegedly" witnessed the lynching of a black male teenager Fred Rochelle (Ossian made this claim of witnessing the lynching while on the witness stand in his murder trial in Detroit in 1925). Fred Rochelle, captured by black males and turned over to the sheriff, admitted to attacking and murdering a white female, 26-year-old Mrs. Rena Smith Taggart, with a butcher knife in an apparent rape attempt. Ossian, who was, according to his story, out alone at night and a mile or more from his home, claimed he watched from the bushes on the night that Fred Rochelle was burned at the stake. “He’d recount it with frightening specificity: the smell of the kerosene, Rochelle’s screams as he was engulfed in flames, the crowd’s picking off pieces of charred flesh to take home as souvenirs.”

Education[link]

In September 1909, Sweet left Florida at age thirteen. Sweet's parents had taught him everything they could, instilling in him religious traditions that had sustained the family through generations of struggle. That is why they wanted Ossian to go North and get an education. He was sent to Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio. Wilberforce University was one of few African American colleges of that time and was funded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Wilberforce is where Ossian became a charter member of the Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi and was where he earned a Bachelors of Science at the age of 25. He would attend Wilberforce for eight years; the first four of which were spent in prep-school studying Latin, history, mathematics, English, music, drawing, philosophy, social and introductory science and foreign language (probably French). Sweet took work shoveling snow, stoking furnaces, washing dirty dishes, waiting tables, and carting luggage up hotel stairs to pay the US$118 for his tuition and books. From Wilberforce University, Ossian attended Howard University in Washington D.C. where he earned his medical accreditation.

Throughout Sweet's early life he demonstrated a very clear dedication to school and overcoming the life of a Southern black. Sweet's parents were one of many families to suffer the tough goodbyes of sending young children away to be educated, but the hope that Ossian would be presented with opportunities not available in the South as well as the possibility of Ossian escaping the horrible things he had witnessed in Bartow, led his parents to this decision. Sweet became the leader in his family and paved the way for his younger siblings to work hard and become educated as well. One of the most pressing impacts of his experience at Wilberforce, and later at Howard, was his growing knowledge and goal to be recognized as part of the Talented Tenth. In his later life, Sweet would see his ambition to join the “Talented Tenth” vindicated when W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about Sweet’s case and held him up as an example for young African-American men to follow.^[3]

Ossian Sweet and The Red Summer[link]

Ossian Sweet was attending Howard University, a leader in black medical education, in 1919 when he personally witnessed the Washington D.C. race riot. Like so many cities in the summer of 1919, Washington D.C. had been stretched to its breaking point. Black migrants from the south had come pouring into the city's main black areas with the promise of wartime jobs, but in 1919 with the end of the war the promise was no longer there, although new migrants were pouring into the city everyday. Thousands of white soldiers were held on the outskirts of Washington D.C. while waiting to be discharged from their service in the World War I. Boredom eventually hit; and when it did, a riot broke that lasted five days and left 6 dead and 150 wounded. Sweet was just four blocks from the riots, but could not leave his fraternity; Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, attributes his lack of composure in this harsh time to fear, and he had good reason. Sweet was “walking down the street when a gang descended on a passing streetcar, pulled a black passenger down to the sidewalk, and beat him mercilessly.” Boyle later states that Sweet did not venture from his house because he was escaping the memories of his past, a true emotion for Sweet, and one that would not leave him until his death.

Detroit & Black Bottom[link]

With little money, Ossian arrived in Detroit in the late summer of 1921, a time of speakeasies, jazz music, liquor, and slumming. It was also a time when drugs, gambling, and prostitution swept the city. According to Kevin Boyle, in 1910 Detroit was on its way to become an industrial powerhouse. A booming modern metropolis paved the way for the growth of the auto industry; around 1913, the pull for jobs on the assembly lines fueled enormous migration to Detroit. In 1910, the population of Detroit was approximately 485,000; by 1920 it had more than doubled. As migration increased, so did segregation.

"Despite its name, Black Bottom wasn't really a colored area. Most of its residents were immigrants, not negroes," states Boyle. Black Bottom was a neighborhood of the poor working class people of Detroit. Boyle describes Black Bottom in his book as dingy and rundown, with rooms barely large enough to accommodate families. Homes in central Black Bottom were decaying. When it rained, water would flood through the ceilings, wind came through holes in the walls where the plaster had cracked off, and many of the windows had no glass. Boyle gives evidence that with discrimination in the real estate market, agents sometimes refused to even show homes in white neighborhoods, for they feared black occupancy would bring down property values. This kept migrants primarily in Black Bottom. With no place else to go, Black Bottom remained the home of the poor working class and landlords saw no need to make improvements to living quarters. The poor living conditions led to the constant threat of infection and spread of disease, and many died of smallpox, pneumonia, and syphilis. In the 1960s, Black Bottom was demolished during the city's urban renewal program. "Black Bottom" also became the name of a popular dance in the Florida/New Orleans areas between 1926-27. It was performed at the Apollo Theater and was modeled after young black children’s imitations of cows stuck in the mud.

Career[link]

Even with his extensive medical knowledge, Sweet encountered difficulty finding work at a hospital due to his race, but his summers waiting at Detroit restaurants instilled him with the knowledge of Black Bottom’s need for medical care. Black Bottom was an overpopulated black ghetto in which migrant workers from the South made their homes during the Great Migration. These proto ghettos were extremely poor areas, being unsanitary with few sources of water, not to mention that they were mainly built in places that were environmentally unhealthy. Overpopulation and the steady influx of migrants, who lacked medical care amid cramped quarters, caused diseases and created imminent threats to life. According to Kevin Boyle in Arc of Justice, “rudimentary care could have saved some of them. But Black Bottom didn’t get even that.” Sweet saw this as an opportunity to practice his medicine. He gave US$100 to a pharmacy, “Palace Drugs”, in exchange for office space. His first client, Elizabeth Riley, feared she had contracted tetanus because her jaw grew stiff. Sweet was able to diagnose that it was not an infection, but rather simply a dislocated jaw. He reset the bone which spread good publicity about his practice throughout the neighborhood. His list of patients grew, and "Ossian was named a medical examiner for Liberty Life Insurance, an appointment that assured him a steady stream of patients he might not have otherwise have acquired." According to Boyle, Sweet earned the respect of his colleagues at Dunbar Memorial.

Personal life[link]

Sweet married Gladys Mitchell in 1922. She was born in Pittsburgh and had been raised in Detroit, a few miles north of Garland, and came from a prominent middle class black family. Recognizing a need for further medical training, Sweet left his practice to study in Vienna and Paris in 1923. Although he did not receive a degree, Sweet furthered his education by attending lectures given by noted physicians and scientists, including Madame Curie. In non-segregated Paris, he and his wife were also treated as equals to Caucasians. His only experience with prejudice while in Europe was at the American Hospital in which he donated a relatively large amount of money, 300 francs, given his finances. When seeking to reserve space for his wife to deliver their baby, the American Hospital refused on the grounds that the white Americans in the hospital did not want to be mixed with black patients. On May 29, 1924, Gladys gave birth to Marguerite, who they later called Iva. The thought that the American Hospital had “imperiled the health, and perhaps the life of Gladys and Iva” infuriated him, and reminded Sweet of the world to which he would return.

By June 21, 1924, the Sweets returned to Detroit and Ossian began working at Dunbar Hospital, Detroit’s first black hospital. Having saved enough money, he moved his family in 1925 from his wife’s parents home in an all-white neighborhood, to 2905 Garland Street, another all-white neighborhood at Garland and Charlevoix. Sweet was aware of the neighborhood's prejudice and of the probable danger he would encounter in purchasing the house, but liked it not only because of its appearance and size, but for what the house represented. Most African Americans lived in Black Bottom, but those who prospered moved to better neighborhoods, which is what Sweet wanted for his own family. Also, he felt he could not back down from buying the home because the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had just been revived after two years of inactivity in Detroit. This meant that there was more of a push against the color line, to not surrender to it at that particular time. The Ossian H. Sweet House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Garland Avenue bungalow[link]

Ossian H. Sweet House at 2905 Garland.

Upon his return to Detroit in 1924, Ossian started work at Dunbar Hospital, Detroit's first black hospital. Because of his training in France, Ossian was more educated than many white men. A young professional of Ossian's status should have had no trouble finding a respectable home in a respectable neighborhood, but unfortunately the Sweets' race played a large role in their house hunting. The Sweets had a difficult time trying to find a realtor who would represent them and, when they finally did, they had an even more difficult time finding a family who would sell them a house. According to Kevin Boyle's account of the Sweets' first impression of the Garland house, the Sweets were less than impressed. The area was a "workingman's" area filled with modest houses and two-family flats, but the location was ideal. It was close to Ossian's office and to Gladys's parents' home. The owners of the home saw the Sweets as an opportunity to make more than the bungalow would have brought if sold to a white family. On June 7, 1925, the Sweets bought the house for US$18,500, about US$6,000 more than the house's fair market value.^[4] The Sweets moved into the house on September 8, 1925.

Home invasion[link]

There were dangerous occurrences happening to friends and acquaintances of Ossian in buying homes in white neighborhoods and then being attacked. There was even a group put together called the Waterworks Park Improvement, which happened to be run by real estate agents from Detroit and nearby cities, whose sole reason of existence was to create controversy against the idea of allowing blacks to move to white neighborhoods. These people were concerned with the belief that allowing blacks into their neighborhoods would lower property values. This was important because at this time, buying a home was a very difficult and lengthy process. The idea of buying land free and clear was no longer an option for most blacks, forcing them instead to take out multiple mortgages to buy a home, leading to even more debt. Also, the idea that an African American could afford what most were struggling to keep was insulting to many of the working class whites that lived in the neighborhood.

Fearing an attack, Ossian had nine other men at his house on the night of the attack to help defend his family and property should any violence arise. The men included: Charles Washington (insurance man), Leonard Morse (colleague), William Davis, Henry Sweet (Ossian's brother), John Latting (Henry's college friend), Norris Murray (handyman), Otis Sweet (Ossian's brother) and Joe Mack (chauffeur). Gladys, too, was inside the bungalow. Police inspector Norton Schuknecht and a detail of officers had been placed outside the Sweet's house to keep the peace and protect Ossian and Gladys from any angry neighbors. When a hostile crowd formed for the second consecutive night in front of Dr. Sweet’s home, Sweet felt that “somewhere out there, standing among the women and children, lounging on the porches, lurking in the alleys were the men who would incite the crowd to violence.” As the crowd grew restless some, possibly children or teenagers, threw stones at the house, eventually breaking an upstairs window. Several of Dr. Sweet’s friends were waiting upstairs, armed with guns that Sweet had purchased prior to moving in. Shots were fired from upstairs, hitting two men. One of the them, Eric Houghberg was wounded in the leg. The other man, Leon Breiner, was killed. The eleven African Americans inside were later brought to police headquarters and interrogated for five hours. Interrogations would last for an extended period of time and the men would remain in the Wayne County Jail until the trial was over.

Trial[link]

The Sweets and their friends were tried for murder by a young Judge, Frank Murphy. Judge Murphy was considered to be one of the more liberal judges in the city, but with the media working the city into a frenzy, Murphy denied the defendant’s appeal to have the case dismissed. However, Ossian Sweet and his friends remained hopeful. When word reached the desk of James Weldon Johnson, general secretary of the NAACP, Johnson knew that this case would be a major force in the acquisition of civil rights for African Americans.

With the help of the NAACP, Sweet and his friends gained the money and support that they needed, if there was to be any hope of winning this trial. The NAACP helped the Sweets and the rest as much as possible; they had James Weldon Johnson send Walter White to them in order to do some of his legendary investigations work. The Sweet trial was one of three main trials the NAACP supported in this year. The NAACP chose carefully which trials would have the most publicity and which trials, if won, would help the African American race and hopefully make steps towards social change. Funds were limited, and the selection of civil rights battles had to be chosen carefully to maximize the limited funds that were available.

As September passed on, life in the Wayne County Jail became slightly more comfortable for Ossian and the others. It was more difficult for jail officers to keep a close eye on them so the Sweets began seeing a steady stream of visitors, including the elder Henry Sweet, who was Ossian's, Otis's and Henry's father. In early October, Johnson invited Clarence Darrow, who was for a period of time the most brilliant defense attorney in the country, to join the Sweets' defense team. Darrow previously had been an attorney in the Scopes Trial. Publicity was what Johnson was looking for from Darrow. Darrow accepted and on October 15 it was announced he would be taking control of the defense. Several days prior to the announcement, on October 6, Gladys was released on bail by her parents' friends. This was a great relief for Ossian. On the morning of Friday, October 30, Clarence Darrow was ready for trial. As the end of November rolled in, and after the jurors' long deliberations, most came to an agreement that the eight remaining defendants should be acquitted; there were however, a few holdouts. At this point, Judge Murphy dismissed the deadlocked jury and declared the court case a mistrial. Dr. Sweet and Gladys had expectations to head back to court within a few weeks, but there were delays. During the long delay between the first and second trial, Darrow did not devote much time to the Sweets' case. Eventually, almost three weeks after it was planned, the trial began on Monday, April 19, 1926. This shorter trial led to an acquittal of Henry Sweet. The prosecuting attorney then elected to dismiss the charges against the remaining defendants.

Aftermath[link]

After Henry was acquitted, life for the Sweets was not as joyous as hoped. Both Gladys and her daughter, Iva, were suffering from tuberculosis, which Gladys believed she had contracted during her incarceration. Two months after her second birthday, Iva died. During the two years following the loss of their daughter, Ossian and Gladys lived apart; he was back at the apartment near Dunbar Memorial and she went to Tucson, Arizona, in order to benefit from the drier climate. By mid-1928, Ossian finally regained possession of the bungalow, which had not been lived in since the shooting. A few months after Gladys returned home, she died, at the age of twenty-seven. After the death of his wife, Ossian bought the Garafalo's Drugstore. In 1929, he left his practice to run a hospital in the heart of the ghetto. He would eventually run a few of these small hospitals, but none ever flourished. As he began to approach the age of fifty, Ossian started to buy land in East Bartow, as his father had. Finally, in 1930, he decided to run for the presidency of the NAACP branch in Detroit, only to lose by a wide margin. In the summer of 1939, Ossian realized that his brother had also contracted tuberculosis; six months later, he died. By this point, Ossian's finances had failed him. It took him until 1950 to pay off the land contract and he then assumed full ownership of the bungalow. He faced too much debt after that and, instead of losing the house, Ossian sold it in April 1958, to another black family. With the bungalow out of his possession, he transformed what had been his office above Garafalo's Drugstore into an apartment. Around this time, Ossian's physical and mental health began to decline; he had put on weight and had slowed in his motions. On March 20, 1960, he went into his bedroom and committed suicide with a shot to the head.

[edit] Arc of Justice

Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age was a best-seller written by Kevin Boyle, a professor of history at Ohio State University.^[5] Boyle's book, Arc of Justice, won the National Book Award for non-fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. On February 2, 2007, Boyle was honored after one of the performances of the play with a testimonial recognition from the city of Detroit in honoring civil rights.^[6]

[edit] Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials

Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials was a play written by Arthur Beer, a professor and performing arts co-chair of the University of Detroit Mercy, which tells the story of Ossian Sweet and the murder trial he, his family, and friends faced, commonly known as the Sweet Trials back in 1924. This play serves an important historical role not only in the history of Detroit, where the incident and trials were held, but also in the History of the United States. Initially performed in 1987, the play was recently brought back in 2007, for its 20 year anniversary. ^[6]

Legacy[link]

• Ossian H. Sweet House registered historical site #S0461^[7]
• Michigan Legal Milestones commemorative plaque in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, Detroit ^[8]
• The Sweet Trials: a play adapted by Kevin Boyle from his book, Arc of Justice^[6]
• Malice Aforethought: The Sweet Trials: a play written by Arthur Beer, adapted from Kevin Boyle's Arc of Justice.^[9]
• My Name is Ossian Sweet: a Docu-Drama by Gordon C. Bennett, based on the Sweet family's attempt to integrate a white neighborhood in Detroit 1925, and their defense against the charge of murder by Clarence Darrow, was published (2011) at www.HeartlandPlays.com.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Darrow, Clarence (1932). "Chapter 34: The Negro in the North". The Story of My Life. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. OCLC 390064. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500951h.html#c34. 
• Darrow, Clarence (1963). "The Problem of the Negro". Verdicts Out of Court. Chicago: Quadrangle Books. OCLC 193194. 
• Haldeman-Julius, Marcet (1927). Clarence Darrow's Two Greatest Trials: Reports of the Scopes Anti-Evolution Case and the Dr. Sweet Negro Trial. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius. OCLC 247255923. 
• Harris, Paul (1997). Black Rage Confronts the Law. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-3527-4. 
• Hays, Arthur Garfield (1928). "Freedom of Residence". Let Freedom Ring. New York: Boni and Liveright. OCLC 2341733. 
• Levine, David Allan (1976). Internal Combustion: The Races in Detroit, 1915-1926. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-8371-8588-2. 
• Montefiore, Simon (2007). Speeches That Changed the World: The Stories and Transcripts of the Moments That Made History. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84724-087-3. 
• Stone, Irving (1941). "Road to Glory". Clarence Darrow for the Defense. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co. OCLC 390077. 
• Tierney, Kevin (1979). "The Sweet Trials". Darrow: A Biography. New York: Crowell. ISBN 0-690-01408-2. 
• Vine, Phyllis (2005). One Man's Castle: Clarence Darrow in Defense of the American Dream (First ed.). New York: Amistad. ISBN 978-0-06-621415-3. 
• Darrow, Clarence; Weinberg, Arthur (1989). "You Can't Live There!". Attorney for the Damned. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-13649-3. 
• Weinberg, Kenneth G. (1971). A Man's Home, A Man's Castle. New York: McCall. ISBN 0-8415-0109-2. 

External links[link]

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison, where Davis was held on death row and where he was executed

Troy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011)^[1][2] was an American man convicted of and executed for the August 19, 1989, murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King restaurant when he intervened to defend a man being assaulted in a nearby parking lot. During Davis's 1991 trial, seven witnesses testified they had seen Davis shoot MacPhail, and two others testified Davis had confessed the murder to them among 34 witnesses who testified for the prosecution, and six others for the defense, including Davis. Although the murder weapon was not recovered, ballistic evidence presented at trial linked bullets recovered at or near the scene to those at another shooting in which Davis was also charged. He was convicted of murder and various lesser charges, including the earlier shooting, and was sentenced to death in August 1991.

Davis maintained his innocence up to his execution. In the 20 years between his conviction and execution, Davis and his defenders secured support from the public, celebrities, and human rights groups. Amnesty International and other groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People took up Davis's cause. Prominent politicians and leaders, including former President Jimmy Carter, Rev. Al Sharpton, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia and presidential candidate Bob Barr, and former FBI Director and judge William S. Sessions called upon the courts to grant Davis a new trial or evidentiary hearing. In July 2007, September 2008, and October 2008, execution dates were scheduled, but each execution was stayed shortly before it was to take place.

In 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence." The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010. The defense presented affidavits from seven of the nine trial witnesses whose original testimony had identified Davis as the murderer, but who it contended had changed or recanted their previous testimony. Some of these writings disavowed parts of prior testimony, or implicated Sylvester "Redd" Coles, whom Davis contended was the actual triggerman. The state presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, who described a careful investigation of the crime, without any coercion. Davis did not call some of the witnesses who had supposedly recanted, despite their presence in the courthouse; accordingly their affidavits were given little weight by the judge. Evidence that Coles had confessed to the killing was excluded as hearsay because Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it.

In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld. The court described defense efforts to upset the conviction as "largely smoke and mirrors"^[3] and found that several of the proffered affidavits were not recantations at all. Subsequent appeals, including to the Supreme Court, were rejected, and a fourth execution date was set for September 21, 2011. Nearly one million people signed petitions urging the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant clemency.^[4] The Board denied clemency^[5] and, on September 21, it refused to reconsider its decision.^[6] After a last minute appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied, the sentence was carried out through lethal injection on September 21, 2011.^[7]

Events of August 18-23, 1899[link]

The charges against Troy Davis arose from the shooting of Michael Cooper, the beating of Larry Young and the murder of Officer Mark MacPhail on August 18-19, 1989.

On the evening of August 18, 18999, Davis was at a strip club in the Cloverdale neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia. As he left the party with his friend Daryl Collins, the occupants of a passing car yelled obscenities. A bullet was fired at the car^[8] and Michael Cooper, a passenger, was struck in the jaw.^[9] Davis and Collins then went to a pool hall on Oglethorpe Avenue in the Yamacraw Village section of Savannah.^[10]

Later that evening, Davis and Collins proceeded to the parking lot of a Burger King restaurant on Oglethorpe Avenue, not far from the pool hall.^[10] There they encountered Sylvester "Redd" Coles arguing with a homeless man, Larry Young, over alcohol.^[8][11]

At about 1:15 am on August 19, 1989, Mark Macphail, an off-duty police officer working as a security guard, attempted to intervene in the pistol-whipping of Young at the parking lot.^[12] MacPhail was shot twice: once through the heart and once in the face. He did not draw his gun.^{[8][11][13][14]} Bullets and shell casings which were determined to have come from a 6.38-caliber pistol were retrieved from the crime scene. Witnesses to the shooting agreed that a man in a white shirt had struck Young and then shot MacPhail.^[8]

On August 19, Coles told Savannah Police he had seen Davis with a .38-caliber gun, and that Davis had assaulted Young.^[8][15] The same evening, Davis drove to Atlanta with his sister.^[8][15] In the early morning of August 20, 1989, Savannah Police searched the Davis home and seized a pair of Davis's shorts which were found in a clothes dryer.^[16] Davis's family began negotiating with police, motivated by concerns about his safety; local drug dealers were making death threats because the police dragnet seeking Davis had disrupted their business.^[15][17] On August 23, 1989, Davis returned to Savannah, surrendered himself to police and was charged with MacPhail's murder.^[15]

Background of Mark MacPhail[link]

Mark Allen MacPhail, Sr., was 27 years old at the time of his murder. He was the son of a U.S. Army colonel, was married, and was father to a two-year-old daughter and an infant son. He had joined the Savannah Police Department in 1986 following six years of military service as an Army Ranger. MacPhail had worked for three years as a regular patrol officer and in the summer of 1989 had applied to train as a mounted policeman.^[18]

Hundreds of mourners, including county, state, and federal law enforcement officers, attended MacPhail's funeral at Trinity Lutheran Church in Savannah on August 22, 1989.^[19]

Background of Troy Davis[link]

Davis was the eldest child of Korean War veteran Joseph Davis and hospital worker Virginia Davis.^[20][21] The couple divorced when Davis was very young,^[21] and Davis grew up with four siblings in the predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood of Cloverdale in Savannah, Georgia.^[21]

Davis attended Windsor Forest High School, where one teacher described him as a poor student.^[21] He dropped out in his junior year so he could drive his disabled younger sister to her rehabilitation.^[20] Davis obtained his high-school equivalency diploma from Richard Arnold Education Center in 1987. A teacher noted that he attended school regularly but seemed to lack discipline.^[20] Davis's nickname at the time was "Rah," or "Rough as Hell," but some neighbors reported that it did not reflect his behavior; they described him as a "straight-up fellow" who acted as a big brother to local children.^[21]

In July 1988, Davis pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon; he was fined $250 as part of a plea agreement in which a charge of possession of a gun with altered serial numbers was dropped.^[22]

In August 1988, Davis began work as a drill technician at a plant which manufactured railroad crossing gates. His boss once commented that while Davis was a likeable and good worker who appeared to have positive life goals, his job attendance was poor and by Christmas 1988, he had stopped coming to work.^[20] Davis returned to the job twice in the following months but neither time remained for long.^[20]

Davis was a coach in the Savannah Police Athletic League and had signed up for service in the United States Marine Corps.^[23]

Trial and conviction[link]

Pre-trial proceedings[link]

On November 15, 1989, a grand jury indicted Davis for murder, assaulting Larry Young with a pistol, shooting Michael Cooper, obstructing MacPhail in performance of his duty and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.^[24] Davis pleaded not guilty in April 1990.^[14]

In November 1990, the presiding judge excluded forensic evidence from the pair of shorts seized at the Davis home. The judge ruled that Davis's mother did "not freely and voluntarily grant the police the right to search her home."^[16] She had testified that police officers had threatened to break down her door unless she let them into her home. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of the evidence in May 1991, saying that the police should have obtained a search warrant.^[24]

Davis was brought to trial in August 1991.

Prosecution case[link]

The prosecution claimed that Davis had shot Cooper in Cloverdale, then met up with Redd Coles at a pool hall, pistol-whipped the homeless man Larry Young in the parking lot and then killed Mark MacPhail.^[9]

The prosecution called three eyewitnesses to the shooting of Cooper:

• Cooper testified that he was intoxicated at the time he was shot, and that although Davis was one of the people Cooper had quarrelled with, he "don't know me well enough to shoot me."^[10]

• Benjamin Gordon stated that the man who had shot Cooper had been wearing a white Batman T-shirt and blue shorts. On cross-examination Gordon admitted he had not seen the person who shot Cooper and stated that he did not know Davis.^[10]

• Daryl Collins had made a statement to police on August 19, 1989 that he had seen Davis shoot at the car in which Cooper was travelling. However, on cross-examination at trial, Collins denied having seen Davis carrying or shooting a gun on the night in question. Collins, who was 16 at the time he made the initial statement, claimed police officers had told him he would be imprisoned if he refused to co-operate with the investigation.^[10]

The prosecution called a number of eyewitnesses to MacPhail's murder:

• Antoine Williams testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had struck Young and then shot MacPhail.^{[25][26][10][27]}

• Harriet Murray and Dorothy Ferrell testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had struck Young and shot MacPhail. They testified Davis shot MacPhail again after he fell to the ground wounded.^[28][10]

• Coles testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had shot MacPhail. Coles admitted arguing with Young but claimed it was Davis who had hit him with a pistol.^[29] On cross-examination, Coles admitted that he owned a .38-caliber pistol but testified he had given it to another man earlier on the night in question.^[25]

• Air force personnel Robert Grizzard and Steven Sanders were also called by the prosecution. Sanders identified Davis as MacPhail's murderer while Grizzard stated he could not identify the gunman.^[27]

• Daryl Collins had claimed in a police statement to have seen Davis approach MacPhail; however, as with the Cooper shooting claims (above), Collins retracted the statement on cross-examination.^[10]

Two witnesses to whom Davis was claimed to have confessed were called at trial:

• Jeffrey Sapp was a neighbor of the Davis family. He testified that Davis confessed to him soon after the murder.^[29]

• Kevin McQueen was an acquaintance of Davis who had been held at Chatham County Jail at the same time as Davis. McQueen claimed that Davis had admitted to being involved in the "exchange of gunfire" in which Cooper was shot and to have shot MacPhail because he was "paranoid...they'd seen him that night in Cloverdale."^[30]

In total, thirty four witnesses testified at trial for the prosecution.^[31]

The prosecution did not produce a weapon (neither the gun which Davis was said to have used nor the gun owned by Coles) as evidence.^[29] A ballistics expert testified that the .38 caliber bullet that killed MacPhail could have been fired from the same gun that wounded Cooper. He also stated that he was confident that .38 casings found at Cloverdale matched bullet casings found near the scene of MacPhail's shooting.^[27][32][33]

Defense case[link]

Davis denied shooting Cooper and denied shooting MacPhail. Davis testified to having seen Coles assault Young, and Davis said that he had fled the scene before any shots were fired and, therefore, did not know who had shot MacPhail.^[34][35]

Six witnesses, including Davis, testified at trial for the defense.^[36] Davis's mother testified that Davis had been at home on August 19, 1989, until he left for Atlanta with his sister at about 9 pm.^[34]

Verdict and sentencing[link]

On August 28, 1991, the jury took under two hours to find Davis guilty of murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.^[13]

The prosecution sought the death penalty during sentencing proceedings for the murder conviction. Davis and three of his family members testified on Davis's behalf. In a final address to the jury, Davis pleaded, "Spare my life. Just give me a second chance. That's all I ask." He told jurors he was convicted for "offenses I didn't commit." MacPhail's family members and friends were not allowed to testify.^[37][38] On August 30, 1991, after seven hours of deliberation, the jury recommended the death penalty and Davis was sentenced to death.^[20]

Appeals and challenges to conviction and sentence[link]

First appellate proceedings[link]

Since the death penalty was imposed, both the conviction and sentence were automatically appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.^[39] Davis and his lawyers requested a new trial, citing problems with the trial site and selection of the jury.^[40] The request was denied in March 1992.^[41] In March 1993, the Georgia Supreme Court also upheld Davis's conviction and sentence, ruling that the judge had correctly refused to change trial site and that the racial composition of the jury did not deny his rights.^[42][43] The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in November 1993.^[44] Direct appeals having been exhausted, in March 1994 an order was signed for Davis's execution.^[45]

First habeas corpus proceedings[link]

In 1994, Davis began habeas corpus proceedings, filing a petition in state court alleging that he had been wrongfully convicted and that his death sentence was a miscarriage of justice.^[27] The following year, the federal funding of the Georgia Resource Center, which helped represent Davis, was cut by 70%, leading to the departures of most of the center's lawyers and investigators. According to a later affidavit by the Executive Director, the "work conducted on Mr. Davis's case was akin to triage... There were numerous witnesses that we knew should have been interviewed, but lacked the resources to do so."^[46] The appeal stated that the testimony of the prosecution witnesses had been coerced by law enforcement personnel. The petition was denied in September 1997, with the court ruling that claims of improper law enforcement approaches should have been raised earlier in the appeal process, and the court could not usurp the jury's role to evaluate the evidence offered during the trial.^[47] The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the denial of state habeas corpus relief on November 13, 2000.^[48]

In 2000 Davis challenged his conviction in state court. He alleged that the use of the electric chair during executions in Georgia constituted cruel and unusual punishment.^[49][50] By a 4–3 margin the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the challenge, stating once again that Davis should have raised the issue earlier in the appeal process.^[51]

Federal appeals[link]

In December 2001, Davis filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court.^[50] From 1996 onwards, seven of the nine principal prosecution eyewitnesses changed all or part of their trial testimony.^[52][53] Dorothy Ferrell, for example, stated in a 2000 affidavit that she felt under pressure from police to identify Davis as the shooter because she was on parole for a shoplifting conviction.^[53] In a 2002 affidavit, Darrell Collins wrote that the police had scared him into falsely testifying by threatening to charge him as an accessory to the crime, and alleged that he had not seen Davis do anything to Young.^[54] Antoine Williams, Larry Young and Monty Holmes also stated in affidavits that their earlier testimony implicating Davis had been coerced by strong-arm police tactics.^[27] In addition, three witnesses signed affidavits stating that Red Coles had confessed to the murder to them.^[29]

The State of Georgia argued that the evidence had been procedurally defaulted since it should have been introduced earlier. Davis's petition was denied in May 2004; the judge stated in an opinion that the "submitted affidavits are insufficient to raise doubts as to the constitutionality of the result at trial, there is no danger of a miscarriage of justice in declining to consider the claim."^[50] He also rejected other defense contentions about unfair jury selection, ineffective defense counsel and prosecutorial misconduct. The decision was appealed to the 11th Circuit Court, which heard oral arguments in the case in September 2005. On September 26, 2006, the court affirmed the denial of federal habeas corpus relief, and determined that Davis had not made "a substantive claim of actual innocence"^[50] or shown that his trial was constitutionally unfair; the circuit court found that neither prosecutors nor defense counsel had acted improperly or incompetently at trial.^[55][56] A petition for panel rehearing was denied in December 2006.^[50]

Legal experts argued that a major obstacle to granting Davis a new trial was the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, passed after the Oklahoma City bombing, which bars death row inmates from later presenting evidence they could have presented at trial.^[3] Members of the legal community have criticized the restricting effect of the 1996 Act on the ability of wrongfully convicted persons to prove their innocence.^[46][54]

First execution date[link]

On June 25, 2007, Davis's first certiorari petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied,^[50][57] and his execution was then set for July 17, 2007.^[46]

Davis's case gained increasing public exposure and support from organizations and prominent individuals. Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged the courts to agree to hear the evidence of police coercion and recanted testimony.^[58][59] An appeal to Governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue urging him to spare Davis's life was sent on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.^[60] Similar appeals were sent by singer Harry Belafonte,^[61] Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking,^[62] and actor Mike Farrell.^[63] Amnesty International published a report about Davis's case characterizing it as a miscarriage of justice and a "catastrophic flaw in the U.S. death penalty machine."^[64] The human rights group initiated a letter-writing campaign and delivered 4,000 letters to the clemency board.^[65] William S. Sessions, former FBI Director and federal judge, called on authorities to halt the execution process, writing that "[i]t would be intolerable to execute a man without his claims of innocence ever being considered by the courts or by the executive".^[59] Politicians and others such as Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Sheila Jackson Lee, and former Texas District Attorney Sam D. Millsap, Jr., and the organization Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation requested that the courts grant Davis a new trial.^[66] U.S. Congressman John Lewis spoke to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, suggesting that Coles – one of the witnesses who had not recanted – was the real killer.^[67] Representatives from the Council of Europe and European Parliament also spoke out on Davis's case, asking U.S. authorities to halt the planned execution and calling for a new trial.^[68]

On July 16, 2007, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted a ninety-day stay of execution in order to allow the evaluation of evidence presented, including the doubts about Davis's guilt.^[69][70] The stay was superseded by the August 2007 decision of the Georgia Supreme Court to grant Davis’ application for discretionary appeal from the denial of his Extraordinary Motion for a New Trial.^[71] Defense lawyers requested a new trial based on statements of mistaken identity.^[72] On March 17, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court denied the appeal by a 4–3 majority. The majority wrote that the recanting witnesses "have merely stated they now do not feel able to identify the shooter", that the trial testimony could not be ignored, and that they "in fact, favor[ed] that original testimony over the new."^[73][74] In dissent, the Chief Justice wrote that "if recantation testimony, either alone or supported by other evidence, shows convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically".^[74]

Second execution date[link]

In July 2008, Davis's lawyers filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of the Georgia Supreme Court decision and arguing that the Eighth Amendment creates a substantive right of the innocent not to be executed.^[75][76] However, an execution date was scheduled for September 23, 2008, before the United States Supreme Court decided whether to take up Davis's case.^[77] The Georgia Supreme Court refused to grant a stay of execution and the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency.^[78][79]

Demonstration in support of Troy Davis, Paris, July 2008

Amnesty International condemned the decision to deny clemency,^[80] and former President (and Georgia Governor) Jimmy Carter released a public letter in which he stated "Executing Troy Davis without a real examination of potentially exonerating evidence risks taking the life of an innocent man and would be a grave miscarriage of justice."^[81][82] Reverend Al Sharpton also called for clemency after he met and prayed with Davis on death row.^[83] A stay of execution was also supported by the NAACP; the president of the Georgia state conference said "This is a modern-day lynching if it's allowed to go forward."^[79] Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr wrote that he is "a strong believer in the death penalty as an appropriate and just punishment," but that the proper level of fairness and accuracy required for the ultimate punishment has not been met in Davis's case.^[84]

A last minute emergency stay, issued by the Supreme Court less than two hours before Davis was scheduled to be put to death, halted the execution.^[85][86] Lawyers for Davis argued that lower courts had failed to permit a hearing to carefully examine the recanted testimony and four witnesses who implicated Coles. Lawyers for the Georgia attorney general's office argued that most of the affidavits had already been presented and reviewed, and that questions about the quality and credibility of the witnesses were raised at the initial trial.^[87]

On October 14, 2008, the Supreme Court declined to hear Davis's petition,^[76][88] and a new execution date was set for October 27, 2008.^[89]

Third execution date[link]

On October 21, 2008, Davis's lawyers requested an emergency stay of the pending execution, and three days later the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of execution to consider a newly-filed federal habeas petition.^[90][91] Davis's supporters continued their appeals and actions; these included rallies held worldwide,^[92] a petition with 140,000 signatures presented to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles,^[90] and an appeal from the European Union calling for the death sentence to be commuted.^[91] In contrast, the Chatham County prosecutors asserted that Davis was guilty and deserved the death penalty.^[90]

Rapper M1 speaks at a rally held in 2009 in New York City in support of Troy Davis

Oral arguments were heard by a three-judge panel on December 9 in Atlanta. Davis's lawyers again argued that exculpatory affidavits proving Davis innocent had not been examined in a court of law; they noted the witnesses who had implicated Coles, and that his photo was not included among those shown to witnesses in the case.^[93][94] The Senior Assistant Attorney General argued that, in extraordinary cases, evidence of wrongful conviction could be heard at this stage of the appeals process, but that in this case the recantation evidence was untrustworthy, and are generally regarded with the "highest suspicion."^[93] Multiple courts and boards had also previously declined appeals.^[93] During the hearing, judge Joel F. Dubina commented: "As bad as it would be to execute an innocent man, it's also possible the real guilty person who shot Officer MacPhail is not being prosecuted."^[93] Another judge, Stanley Marcus, noted that two of the witnesses had not changed their recollections,^[94] and that no DNA evidence was available to categorically clear Davis.^[93] After the hearing, Davis's sister, Martina Correia, an active campaigner for her brother stated "This is not family against family. We have no ill will against the MacPhail family. When justice is found for Troy, there will be justice for Officer MacPhail."^[95]

On April 16, 2009, the panel denied Davis's application by a 2–1 majority. Judges Dubina and Marcus rejected the petition, stating that Davis's claims having been reviewed and rejected in the past, and that the recantations were not persuasive.^[96][97] Judge Rosemary Barkett, in dissent, expressed her belief that as Davis might prove his innocence, it would be wrong to execute him.^[96] In an interview, Mark MacPhail Jr. said of his father, "He gave his life for the community and now I'm trying to help out his name and help him in some way." Of the appeals process, he says, "The past two years we've had countless appeals and it just keeps on getting drug out." Of Davis, MacPhail said, "He decided to break the law. And our law says, you kill an officer of the law, who tries to uphold it, you must be punished."^[98] The 11th Circuit issued an order extending the stay of execution for 30 days to allow Davis the opportunity to file a habeas corpus petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.^[96] Davis filed a petition for habeas corpus with the U.S. Supreme Court on May 19, 2009.^[99]

On August 17, 2009, the Supreme Court ordered the Savannah federal district court to "receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence."^[100][101] Justice John Paul Stevens, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, wrote that "[t]he substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification for holding an evidentiary hearing." Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, stating that a new hearing would be "a fool's errand" because Davis's claim of innocence was "a sure loser". He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.^[102]

Federal hearing[link]

In response to the Supreme Court order, a two-day hearing was held in June 2010 in a federal district court in Savannah in front of Judge William Moore.^[102][103] Former prosecution witness Antoine Williams stated he did not know who had shot MacPhail, and that because he was illiterate he could not read the police statements he had signed in 1989.^[104] Other prosecution witnesses Jeffrey Sapp and Kevin MacQueen testified that Davis had not confessed to them as they had stated at the initial trial.^[105] Darrell Collins also recanted his previous evidence that he had seen Davis shoot Cooper and MacPhail.^[104] The witnesses variously described their previous testimony against Davis as being the result of feeling scared, of feeling frightened and pressured by police or to get revenge in a conflict with Davis.^[104][105] Anthony Hargrove testified that Redd Coles had admitted the killing to him. The state's lawyers described Hargrove's testimony as hearsay evidence; Judge William T. Moore permitted the evidence but stated that unless Coles appeared, he might give the evidence "no weight whatsoever."^[104][105] Another witness making a similar statement was heard, but a third was rejected by Judge Moore as the claims were inadmissible hearsay because Coles was not called as a witness and given the opportunity for rebuttal.^[103][106] Moore criticized the decision not to call Coles, saying that he was "one of the most critical witnesses to Davis's defense". One of Davis's lawyers stated that the day before they had been unsuccessful in serving a subpoena on Coles; Moore responded that the attempt had been made too late, given that the hearing date had been set months in advance.^[103]

State attorneys called current and former police officers and the two lead prosecutors, who testified that the investigation had been careful, and that no witnesses had been coerced or threatened.^[103] The lead detective testified that his investigation was "very meticulous and careful… I was in no rush just to pick the first guy we got our hands on. I wanted the right guy."^[105] He stated that witnesses gave "strikingly similar descriptions on how the shooter was dressed", mostly describing the shooter as wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants, which other witnesses said Davis was wearing that evening.^[105] A state attorney asserted that the testimony of at least five prosecution witnesses remained unchallenged, and the evidence of Davis's guilt was overwhelming.^[103] In July 2010, Davis's lawyers filed a motion asking Moore to reconsider his decision to exclude testimony from a witness to a confession by Coles,^[106] but in August 2010, Moore stood by his initial decision, stating that in not calling Coles, Davis's lawyers were seeking to implicate Coles without desiring his rebuttal.^[107]

Moore ruled that executing an innocent person would violate the Eighth Amendment. "However, Mr. Davis is not innocent."^[101] In his decision, Moore wrote: "while Mr. Davis's new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors."^[101][3] Of the seven papers described as recantations by the defense, Moore found that only one was wholly credible and two were partly credible.^[101][108] He did not consider Coles' alleged confessions because of the failure of Davis's lawyers to subpoena Coles, and suggested that Davis should appeal directly to the Supreme Court.^[108] In November 2010, the federal appeals panel dismissed an appeal on the case, without ruling on its merits. They stated that Davis should appeal the case directly to the U.S. Supreme Court "because he had exhausted his other avenues of relief."^[109] Rosemary Barkett, one of the panel judges, later released a statement saying that although she agreed with the decision, she still believed that Davis should be given a new trial.^[110]

Renewed U.S. Supreme Court petition[link]

A man protesting the September 21 execution date at the September 17 Occupy Wall Street rally

In January 2011, Davis's legal team filed a new petition with the United States Supreme Court, alleging that the 11th Circuit panel had "evinced a clear hostility" during his August 2010 appeal, and again asking for a new trial.^[111] The petition was rejected without comment by the Supreme Court in March 2011, allowing a new execution date.^[112][113]

In May 2011, Amnesty International and People of Faith Against the Death Penalty asked religious leaders to sign a petition to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles calling for the commutation of Davis's death sentence. By September 17, 2011, over 660,000 people^[114] had signed the petition for clemency including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Wilton Gregory, William Sessions (former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation), President Jimmy Carter and representatives for the European Parliament.^[115]

In contrast, law enforcement officials such as Spencer Lawton, the former Chatham County prosecutor who put Davis on trial, remained convinced of the evidence for Davis's guilt and that Davis's supporters "would know differently if they looked at the record."^[116] He stated: "We have consistently won the case as it has been presented in court. We have consistently lost the case as it has been presented in the public realm, on TV and elsewhere."^[116] Members of MacPhail's family were also convinced of Davis's guilt, and thought his execution would bring a measure of peace.^[117][118] His mother reported "That hole in my heart will be there until the day I die, but it [the execution] may give me some peace and quiet."^[118] Mark MacPhail, Jr. stated "It's not animosity or anger or rage that has kept us going; that's not what my father would want. It's justice. The law is what he was all about. That's what we have to uphold."^[119]

Execution of Troy Davis[link]

On September 7, 2011, Georgia set Davis's execution date for September 21, 2011.^[120] The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles set a hearing for Davis's second bid for clemency for September 19. The Board did not grant him clemency in September 2008, but the five-member Board had three new members.^[121][122] On September 20, the Board denied him clemency.^[123]

On the morning of September 21, 2011, the Butts County Superior Court denied Davis's request to halt his execution. The Georgia Supreme Court also denied his appeal. Davis was set to be executed at 7 pm EDT.^[124] The same night, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced that President Obama would not intervene in the case (while Obama could not have pardoned Davis, he had the authority to order a federal investigation that might have led to a delay in the execution).^[125] Davis filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution. Almost an hour after Davis's scheduled execution time, the Supreme Court announced they would review his petition, thereby postponing his scheduled execution.^[126] The Supreme Court, however, denied Davis's petition, after deliberating for several hours.^[127]

The execution began at 10:53 pm EDT.^[128] In his final words, Davis maintained his innocence, saying:^[129]

Well, first of all I'd like to address the MacPhail family. I'd like to let you all know, despite the situation -- I know all of you are still convinced that I'm the person that killed your father, your son and your brother, but I am innocent. The incident that happened that night was not my fault. I did not have a gun that night. I did not shoot your family member. But I am so sorry for your loss. I really am -- sincerely. All I can ask is that each of you look deeper into this case, so that you really will finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends that you all continue to pray, that you all continue to forgive. Continue to fight this fight. For those about to take my life, may God have mercy on all of your souls. God bless you all.^[130]

He was declared dead at 11:08 pm EDT.^[7]

His funeral was attended by over 1,000 people in Savannah, Georgia, on October 1, 2011.^[131]

References[link]

External links[link]

	State of Georgia portal
	Criminal justice portal

• Troy Davis collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Amnesty international.USA: 'Where is the justice for me?' : The case of Troy Davis, facing execution in Georgia

U.S. Supreme Court

• Troy Anthony Davis v. Georgia, No. 08-66 (petition for writ of certiorari), docket
• In re Troy Anthony Davis, No. 08-1443 (petition for writ of habeas corpus), docket
• In re Troy Anthony Davis, No. 08-1443, Order of the Court and concurring opinion by Justice Stevens, August 17, 2009
• In re Troy Anthony Davis, No. 08-1443, Dissenting opinion by Justice Scalia, August 17, 2009

U.S. District Court

• In re Troy Anthony Davis, No. CV409-130, (S.D. Ga. Aug. 24, 2010), Final Order Denying Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus as to Troy Anthony Davis. pages 1–62; pages 63–174.