10 People Who Were Probably Wrongly Executed

2. Troy Davis

Troy Davis was convicted and executed for the murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail on 19th August 1989. It is believed that Davis shot Officer MacPhail after he tried to intervene when a fight broke out between Davis and a man by the name of Larry Young. Shell casings found at the crime scene matched those from a previous incident that night which involved Davis and he was charged with MacPhail's murder.

Nine witnesses testified at the trial claiming that they either saw Davis shoot MacPhail or claimed that Davis had confessed. One of these witnesses was Sylvester Coles. Davis testified that it was in fact Coles who assaulted Larry Young but that he left the scene before any shots were fired so he did not know who killed MacPhail. Despite there being no DNA evidence linking Davis to the crime scene nor the murder weapon found, it took the jury less than 2 hours to find Davis guilty and he was sentenced to death.

Five years after Davis was convicted of the murder of Mark MacPhail, seven of the nine witnesses changed their statements claiming that they felt pressured by police to testify against Davis. One person who didn't change his statement was Sylvester Coles. It later transpired that Coles owned the exact same gun that was used to shoot MacPhail and three witnesses signed statements stating that Coles confessed to the murder.

Notwithstanding these statements, Davis' petition for a retrial was refused and he was executed on 21st September 2001.