27 October 2008 :

Troy Davis, who has spent 17 years on death row for the murder of a policeman, was granted a stay of execution, three days before he was due to be put to death in Georgia. ``Upon our thorough review of the record, we conclude that Davis has met the burden for a provisional stay of execution,'' said the decision taken by three judges sitting on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the southern state of Georgia. Davis, 40, was scheduled to die on October 27, at 7pm by lethal injection for the 1989 killing of 27-year-old white policeman Mark Allen MacPhail.
He has repeatedly claimed he did not kill MacPhail and seven out of nine witnesses who gave evidence at his trial in 1991 have recanted or changed their testimony, the backbone of the prosecution's case in the absence of a murder weapon, fingerprints and DNA.
Other witnesses have since identified another man as the shooter -- a state's witness who testified against Davis.
The appeals court gave Davis's lawyers 15 days to file documents with the court, supporting defence claims that Davis is being wrongfully held in prison. The court will then have 10 days to decide if the case should go back before a lower court.