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Davis Hearing Wraps Up With Stunning Admission by WitnessThis week, for the first time a court heard evidence of Troy Davis's innocence of a crime he was convicted of almost 20 years ago. Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. Since his conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses who testified against him at trial have recanted their statements. Of those seven, five testified this week that the police coerced them into lying and testifying against Davis. (The remaining two witnesses who had also recanted their testimony have died.) Among the testimony: “I was scared,” [Darrell "D.D." Collins] said, adding that police threatened to charge him as an accessory. “That’s what they wanted me to say. I thought that was the only way I could get out of it.” One of the remaining two witnesses who had not recanted is Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who was with Davis the night of the murder. At this week's hearing, one eyewitness said he saw Coles murder Officer MacPhail: Davis' legal team also summoned Benjamin Gordon, who testified that he saw Sylvester "Redd" Coles shoot and kill the officer. Since 1973, 138 men have been exonerated from death row. Hopefully this week's hearing is the first step towards making Troy Davis the 139th.
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