Vol. 74/No. 45      November 29, 2010

The three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to consider the evidence in the case, contending their court was not the correct venue and that Davis should appeal only to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In August 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to “make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes petitioner’s [Davis’s] innocence.” But in a blow to the presumption of innocence, a U.S. district judge upheld Davis’s conviction in August of this year, claiming the evidence wasn’t strong enough to prove his innocence.

This was despite prosecution witnesses who recanted their testimony given at the original trial and the lack of any physical evidence linking Davis to the killing. Three witnesses told how they were coerced by police to finger Davis. Others said they could identify another man as the one who killed MacPhail. The judge also blamed Davis’s defense, but not the prosecutors, for not calling another possible suspect to the stand.

Davis had filed his latest appeal with both the 11th Circuit Court and the Supreme Court, which has yet to respond.

Associated Press reported that Martina Correia, Davis’s sister, said “the family would keep fighting until he’s declared innocent, an issue she said the courts have been afraid to confront.”

“It’s like passing a hot potato,” Correia said. “Troy’s case opens a big Pandora’s box about what’s wrong with the criminal justice system, and a lot of people just want to keep that box closed.”
 
 
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