Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. tonight at the Georgia Diagnostics & Classifications Prison in Jackson.

Davis was sent to Death Row in 1991 for the murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles has said that it will not reconsider clemency, and the Georgia Supreme Court has denied Davis a stay of execution.

Davis’ last hope rests with the U.S. Supreme Court. The court will decide on Sept. 29 whether to hear a final appeal from Davis. But that ruling will be mute if the execution is carried out tonight.

Davis has always maintained his innocence, and many believe the certainty of his guilt is precarious. There is no physical evidence or murder weapon linking him to the crime, and seven of the nine witnesses who accused him at trial have now recanted their testimony. One of the witnesses who has not recanted, Sylvester “Redd” Coles, has been fingered as the murderer by three witnesses who have recanted.

The case has brought together strange bedfellows. The pope, Jimmy Carter and Bob Barr (who is pro-death penalty) have all asked for a stay of execution for Davis.

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