Troy Davis Dies Proclaiming Innocence

Troy Davis was put to death by lethal injection last night after the US Supreme Court refused to stop his execution in Georgia. Davis' attorneys made the last-ditch plea after all other options were exhausted. Davis, who was convicted of killing off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail in 1989 but protested his innocence until the end, was pronounced dead at 11:08pm, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The case received international attention, with everyone from Jimmy Carter to the pope to Amnesty International calling for his sentence to be commuted.

"I want to talk to the MacPhail family. I was not responsible for what happened that night. I did not have a gun. I was not the one who took the life of your father, son, brother," Davis said while he was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth." MacPhail's widow said there was "nothing to rejoice," but that it was "a time for healing for all families," the AP reports. "I will grieve for the Davis family because now they're going to understand our pain and our hurt," she said. (More Troy Davis stories.)