MacPhail had joined the Savannah Police Department in 1986 following six years of military service as an Army Ranger. MacPhail had worked for three years as a regular patrol officer and in the summer of 1989 had applied to train as a mounted policeman.
Hundreds of mourners, including county, state and federal law enforcement officers, attended MacPhail's funeral at Trinity Lutheran Church in Savannah on August 22, 1989.
Background of defendant
Davis was the eldest child of Korean War veteran Joseph Davis and hospital worker Virginia Davis. The couple divorced when Davis was very young, and Davis grew up with four siblings in the predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood of Cloverdale in Savannah, Georgia. He attended Windsor Forest High School, where one teacher described him as a poor student. He dropped out in his junior year so he could drive his disabled younger sister to her rehabilitation. Davis obtained his high-school equivalency diploma from Richard Arnold Education Center in 1987. A teacher noted that he attended school regularly but seemed to lack discipline. Davis's nickname at the time was "Rah," or "Rough as Hell", but some neighbors reported that it did not reflect his behavior; they described him as a "straight-up fellow" who acted as a big brother to local children. In July 1988, Davis pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon; he was fined $250 as part of a plea agreement in which a charge of possession of a gun with altered serial numbers was dropped.
In August 1988, Davis began work as a drill technician at a plant manufacturing railroad crossing gates. His boss once commented that while Davis was a likeable and good worker who appeared to have positive life goals, his job attendance was poor and by Christmas 1988 he had stopped coming to work. Davis returned to the job twice in the following months but neither time remained for long.
Davis was a coach in the Savannah Police Athletic League and had signed up for service in the United States Marine Corps.
Trial and conviction
Pre-trial proceedings
On November 15, 1989, a grand jury indicted Davis for murder, assaulting Larry Young with a pistol, shooting Michael Cooper, obstructing MacPhail in performance of his duty and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Davis pleaded not guilty in April 1990.
In November 1990, the presiding judge excluded forensic evidence from the pair of shorts seized at the Davis home. The judge ruled that Davis's mother did "not freely and voluntarily grant the police the right to search her home". She had testified that police officers had threatened to break down her door unless she let them into her home. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of the evidence in May 1991, saying that the police should have obtained a search warrant.
Davis was brought to trial in August 1991.
Prosecution case
The prosecution claimed that Davis had shot Cooper in Cloverdale, then met up with Redd Coles at a pool hall, pistol-whipped the homeless man Larry Young in the parking lot and then killed Mark MacPhail.
The prosecution called three eyewitnesses to the shooting of Cooper:
Cooper testified that he was intoxicated at the time he was shot, and that although Davis was one of the people Cooper had quarrelled with, he "don't know me well enough to shoot me".
Benjamin Gordon stated that the man who had shot Cooper had been wearing a white Batman T-shirt and blue shorts. On cross-examination Gordon admitted he had not seen the person who shot Cooper and stated that he did not know Davis.
Daryl Collins had made a statement to police on August 19, 1989 that he had seen Davis shoot at the car in which Cooper was travelling. However, on cross-examination at trial, Collins denied having seen Davis carrying or shooting a gun on the night in question. Collins, who was 16 at the time he made the initial statement, claimed police officers had told him he would be imprisoned if he refused to co-operate with the investigation.
The prosecution called a number of eyewitnesses to MacPhail's murder:
Larry Young and Antoine Williams testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had struck Young and then shot MacPhail.
Harriet Murray and Dorothy Ferrell testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had struck Young and shot MacPhail. They testified Davis shot MacPhail again after he fell to the ground wounded.
Coles testified that Davis, wearing a white shirt, had shot MacPhail. Coles admitted arguing with Young but claimed it was Davis who had hit him with a pistol. On cross-examination, Coles admitted that he owned a .38-caliber pistol but testified he had given it to another man earlier on the night in question.
Air force personnel Robert Grizzard and Steven Sanders were also called by the prosecution. Sanders identified Davis as MacPhail's murderer while Grizzard stated he could not identify the gunman.
Daryl Collins had claimed in a police statement to have seen Davis approach MacPhail; however, as with the Cooper shooting claims (above), Collins retracted the statement on cross-examination.
Two witnesses to whom Davis was claimed to have confessed were called at trial:
Jeffrey Sapp was a neighbor of the Davis family. He testified that Davis confessed to him soon after the murder.
Kevin McQueen was an acquaintance of Davis who had been held at Chatham County Jail at the same time as Davis. McQueen claimed that Davis had admitted to being involved in the "exchange of gunfire" in which Cooper was shot and to have shot MacPhail because he was "paranoid...they'd seen him that night in Cloverdale".
In total, thirty four witnesses testified at trial for the prosecution.
The prosecution did not produce a weapon (neither the gun which Davis was said to have used nor the gun owned by Coles) as evidence. A ballistics expert testified that the .38 caliber bullet that killed MacPhail could have been fired from the same gun that wounded Cooper, though he admitted doubt about this. However, he stated he was confident that .38 casings found at Cloverdale matched one allegedly later found by a homeless man near the scene of MacPhail's shooting.
[edit]Defense case
Davis denied shooting Cooper and denied shooting MacPhail. Davis testified to having seen Coles assault Young and said Davis had fled the scene before any shots were fired and did not know who had shot MacPhail.
Six witnesses, including Davis, testified at trial for the defense. Davis's mother testified that Davis had been at home on August 19, 1989, until he left for Atlanta with his sister at about 9 pm.
Verdict and sentencing
On August 28, 1991, the jury took under two hours to find Davis guilty of murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
The prosecution sought the death penalty during sentencing proceedings for the murder conviction. Davis and three of his family members testified on Davis's behalf. In a final address to the jury, Davis pleaded, "Spare my life. Just give me a second chance. That's all I ask." He told jurors he was convicted for "offenses I didn't commit." MacPhail's family members and friends were not allowed to testify.On August 30, 1991, after seven hours of deliberation, the jury recommended the death penalty and Davis was sentenced to death.
First appellate proceedings
Since the death penalty was imposed, both the conviction and sentence were automatically appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court. Davis and his lawyers requested a new trial, citing problems with the trial site and selection of the jury.The request was denied in March 1992. In March 1993, the Georgia Supreme Court also upheld Davis's conviction and sentence, ruling that the judge had correctly refused to change trial site and that the racial composition of the jury did not deny his rights. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in November 1993. Direct appeals having been exhausted, in March 1994 an order was signed for Davis's execution.
All about Troy Davis case
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