Parole Board Stands Between Troy Davis and Execution

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles is the only thing standing between death row inmate Troy Davis and execution next week. The board will convene on Monday.

On Thursday, it received petitions with 663,000 names urging clemency.

The long legal battle for Davis is scheduled to come to an end on Sept. 21 when he is expected to be executed by lethal injection for the murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 in Savannah.

Davis was 19 at the time when he was pointed out as the suspect. However, he has maintained his innocence.

For years Davis' lawyers have been arguing that they can prove their client is an innocent man. They have managed to spare him from three execution dates in the last four years, according to The Associated Press.

After a series of appeals that got special attention from the U.S. Supreme Court, Davis couldn't convince the courts to grant him a new trial, The AP reported. He has almost exhausted his legal options and now faces a judicial killing.

On the day of the murder Mark MacPhail, 27, was moonlighting as a security guard outside a Savannah bus station on Aug. 19 when he was shot and killed.

He was rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked, according to The AP. Davis was arrested as the killer and eyewitness statements two years later influenced a jury to sentence him to death.

Hundreds of protest rallies have been held against the judicial killing, with many gathering in Atlanta last week. About 300 rallies were held worldwide ahead of a parole board hearing for Davis, according to reports.

Davis' supporters are claiming he is innocent, stating that 10 witnesses in the case have signed affidavits withdrawing their testimony saying that police coerced them into accusing the 41 year old.

It was definitely not the Troy we knew, Davis's younger sister Kim told The AP. It was very, very shocking when it did happen. It kind of turned the family upside down.

A juror in the case has also spoken out.

If I knew then what I know now, Brenda Davis, one of the jurors in the trial told CNN in a 2009 interview, Troy Davis would not be on Death Row. The verdict would be 'not guilty.'

Mark MacPhail's relatives believe otherwise. His mother told The AP she is confident Davis killed her son.

Anneliese MacPhail has dismissed Davis' advocates, which includes the NAACP, Amnesty International, former President Jimmy Carter, and Pope Benedict XVI, saying they are ill-informed interlopers who have only prolonged her family's push for justice, according to The AP.

She also said she's cautiously confident that will end Wednesday.

I think I finally will have peace of mind, said Anneliese MacPhail, who lives in Columbus. When it is over I can close that book and I know Mark can rest in peace, too.