SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Did Troy Anthony Davis deserve to be put on Georgia's death row? The answer depends on one's faith in the system and its many procedural hoops.
Trial witnesses recanted what they'd sworn to police, and jurors even questioned their verdict. Activists, some of them death-penalty supporters, protested by the thousands that he was innocent -- or at least that guilt was hopelessly shrouded in reasonable doubt.
A close review of Davis' two-decade legal odyssey suggests that a good deal of the witnesses' hedging on what they'd seen the night of the murder was not new.
Davis' attorneys missed "opportunities" that might have changed the outcome of appeals.
Executive clemency is meant to be a guard against unfair trials and shoddy defense work but critics say the fail-safe failed here.
(Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)