US death row inmate loses bid to prove his innocence

GREETINGS,

US death row inmate loses bid to prove his innocence

A court ruled Tuesday that Troy Davis, a death row inmate given a rare second chance by the US Supreme Court, had failed to prove his innocence, clearing the way for his execution.

A highly unusual hearing was ordered in June for Davis, who has been on death row since 1991 for murdering a policeman, because seven of the nine witnesses against him had recanted testimony in the years since his trial.

But a court in the southern US state of Georgia decided on Tuesday that Davis, an African-American, had been unable to show that he was innocent of the fatal shooting of a white police officer in 1989.

“The court concludes that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Mr. Davis has failed to prove his innocence,” a judge on the court in Savannah wrote.

Davis’s family told AFP it planned to appeal Tuesday’s decision.

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