JACKSON – The US state of Georgia executed convicted murderer Troy Davis on Wednesday in a case that drew international attention because of claims by his advocates that he may have been innocent.
Davis was put to death by lethal injection at 11.08pm (5.08am Irish time on Thursday) at a prison in central Georgia for the murder of a police officer in 1989, prisons spokeswoman Kristen Stancil said. The execution was delayed by more than four hours as the US Supreme Court considered whether to issue a stay.
The case provoked protests and an online petition accumulated almost a million signatures because of doubts expressed in some quarters over whether he killed police officer Mark Mac Phail in 1989.
Mac Phail was shot and killed outside a Burger King restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, as he went to the aid of a homeless man who was being beaten. Mac Phail’s family says Davis is guilty and his son witnessed the execution.
– (Reuters)