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VIA- ABCNews
Davis's attorneys have launched a series of last-ditch efforts just hours before he is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1989 murder of Savannah cop Mark MacPhail.
A Georgia board of pardons and paroles today rejected Davis' offer to take a lie detector test, and his attorney Brian Kammer submitted a petition to the county where the jail is located to block the execution, although it is unclear whether the jail has any jurisdiction.
Davis, 42, is scheduled to be executed at 7 p.m. He has refused the option of a final meal. His lawyers said he will spend his remaining hours with friends, family, and supporters instead.
He has spent 22 years on death row and in recent years support for his plea of innocence has grown as several witnesses recanted their testimony that he fired the shot that killed MacPhail. His impending execution has brought those efforts to a head.
In the 24 hours before his scheduled death, a flurry of messages on Twitter using the hashtags #TroyDavis and #TooMuchDoubt showed thousands of supporters of Davis who were intent on flooding the Jackson Distirct Attorney's office, Georgia Judge Penny Freezeman's office, and the U.S. Attorney General's office with phone calls and emails to beg for a stay on the execution.
Some users accused Twitter of blocking the topic from trending on Tuesday, though a representative from Twitter told ABC News there was no such action taken. The hashtags were trending today in cities around the US as well as Germany, the UK, Sweden, and France. Many Tweets called the case a symbol of a return to Jim Crow laws and racial inequalities in the justice system.
Big Boi, a member of the group Outkast, tweeted to his followers to go to the Georgia state prison in Jackson to protest the decision. The Roots' Questlove tweeted a similar message.
A 3 p.m. press conference held by the NAACP and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will call for intervention to save Davis. The NAACP has not made it clear whether they will appeal to President Obama for help.
Amnesty International, which has been fighting on behalf of Davis, encouraged supporters to attend a vigil at the church across the street from the prison at 5:30 p.m. and a protest at 6 p.m., and asked participants to wear a black armband and write on it, "Not in my name!"
Wendy Gozen Brown, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said that Troy Davis would want the protests to remain peaceful.
"In this type of situation, there's always the potential for it to go awry, with certain groups, angry rhetoric. But Troy Davis would want people to keep fighting peacefully, for him and for, as he would put it, all of the other Troy Davis's out there."
Others who have voiced support for Davis include former president Jimmy Carter, the pope and a former FBI director.
Davis's execution has been stayed four times for appeals since his conviction in 1989, and the Supreme Court gave him a rare chance to prove his innocence last year, but rejected his plea.
A Georgia board of pardons and paroles rejected Davis's plea for clemency on Tuesday.
The parole board said today that it will not reconsider its decision and the execution will go forward.
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