Troy Davis

Troy Anthony Davis (October 9, 1968 – September 21, 2011) 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. 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.

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. 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."

Execution September 25, 2011 in France, after the execution of Troy Davis. On September 7, 2011, Georgia set Davis's execution date for two weeks later, September 21. 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 the execution. He was declared dead at 11:08 pm EDT.

His funeral was attended by more than 1,000 people in Savannah, Georgia, on October 1, 2011.

In popular culture The second episode of the second season of The Newsroom included substantial discussion of the Troy Davis case, with the character Don Keefer (Thomas Sadoski) wanting to use their network's platform to advocate for Davis's clemency. On the second anniversary of Davis's execution, Haymarket Books released I Am Troy Davis, a book co-authored by human rights activist Jen Marlowe, and Davis's sister, Martina Davis-Correia, with the participation of Troy Davis himself. On the fourth anniversary of Davis's execution, Gautam Narula released Remain Free, a memoir about his close friendship with Davis featuring hundreds of recorded conversations that took place during Davis's final three years on death row. The book won the 2016 Georgia Author of the Year Award. Narula recorded a 12-minute spoken version of his story called "Coming of Age on Death Row" which was broadcast on The Moth Radio Hour on June 26, 2018. 'Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project', a play written by Lee Nowell, premiered at Synchronicity Theatre in Atlanta, GA on April 8, 2016. Dutch Rock band Paceshifters has a song "Davis" on their album "Home". Boston rock band State Radio released their song, "State of Georgia", about Davis on their album Rabbit Inn Rebellion. Chinoye Chukwu was inspired by Davis to write the screenplay for Clemency. In the film, the character Anthony Woods makes a statement similar to the final words Davis gave at his execution.