William Theodore Moore Jr.

Notable cases

In August 2010, Moore ruled on the prominent Troy Davis case. Davis was a Georgia inmate on death row, accused and convicted of murdering a police officer in 1989. Davis's guilt has been questioned, due to the release of new information, including the complete or partial recantation of the testimonies of seven (out of nine total) prosecution witnesses. In his ruling, Moore stated that Davis and his legal team had failed to demonstrate his innocence, as the added information was "largely smoke and mirrors" and added only "minimal doubt"; Moore dismissed four recantations as not credible, and two of them as only partly credible, finding that only one was wholly credible. He did not consider the alleged confessions of Redd Cole, another suspect in the case, because of the failure of Davis's lawyers to subpoena Cole and give him opportunity for rebuttal, and suggested that Davis should appeal directly to the Supreme Court. Davis was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011.